ENGLISH VOYAGj 

OF ADVENTURE 
AND DISCOVERY 





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ENGLISH VOYAGES 
OF ADVENTURE AND DISCOVERY 



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ENGLISH VOYAGES 

OF ADVENTURE AND DISCOVERY 
RETOLD FROM HAKLUYT 



BY 

EDWIN M. BACON, 

AUTHOR OF "HISTORIC PILGRIMAGES IN NEW ENGLAND," 

'LITERARY PILGRIMAGES IN NEW ENGLAND," "THE CONNECTICUT RIVER 

AND THE VALLEY OF THE CONNECTICUT," ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1908 









UOHARY Of CONGRESS 
iwo Copies necmvsd 

SEP 23 laoa 



Copyright, igo8, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



Published September, 1908 




PREFACE 

This account of Richard Hakluyt and his narratives of 
English exploration and adventure, from the earliest records 
to the establishment of the English colonies in North America, 
has been prepared at the instance of Edwin D. Mead, the fine 
mainspring of the far-reaching system of historical study widely 
known as the "Old South Work," for the instruction of young 
folk, by engaging methods, in genuine American history. The 
purpose of the book was to draw the youth of to-day to a 
source of American history of first importance, and a work of 
eternal interest and value. 

To this end I have sought to utilize the huge foolscap 
volumes of the Principal Navigations and to summarize or 
compress the narratives into a coherent story from the earliest 
adventures chiefly for conquest to those for discovery and ex- 
pansion of trade, and finally for colonization, down to the set- 
tlement of Virginia. The American note is dominant through- 
out this animated story of daring, pluck, courage, genuine 
heroism, and splendid nerve displayed by the English captains 
of adventure and discovery North, East, and West. 

I have endeavored also to recall Hakluyt's significant work 
in his publications which preceded the Principal Navigations, 
and in his equally important personal efforts to forward Amer- 
ican colonization by England, in order to re-present him in his 
true position, recognized by the earlier historians — that of a 

v 



vi Preface 

founder hand in hand with Raleigh of the English colonies, 
out of which developed the national life of the United States. 

The dictum of William Robertson in his eighteenth century 
History of America (1777), that to Hakluyt England was more 
indebted for her American possessions "than to any other man 
of that age," was sustained by Sir Clements Robert Markham, 
the English traveller, geographer, and historian, upon the occa- 
sion, in 1896, of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the 
Hakluyt Society, of which Sir Clements was then the president, 
when he said: "Virtually Raleigh and Hakluyt were the found- 
ers of those colonies which eventually formed the United States. 
As Americans revere the name of Walter Raleigh, they should 
give an equal place to Richard Hakluyt." 

Sir Clements further observed: "Excepting, of course, 
Shakspere and the Dii Majores, there is no man of the age of 
Elizabeth to whom posterity owes a deeper debt of gratitude 
than to Richard Hakluyt, the saviour of the records of our 
explorers and discoverers by land and sea." 

Americans may well claim the pride of inheritance in these 
brave annals of adventure on untried seas and to unknown 
lands. Hakluyt's quaint language ought not to be a hard nut 
to crack for the American boy when such rich meat is within. 

E. M. B. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Beginnings of America . i 

II. Richard Hakluyt the Man 17 

III. "The Principal Navigations" .... 32 

IV. The Early Voyages 36 

V. Quest for the Northwest Passage ... 53 

VI. The Voyages of the Cabots 62 

VII. The English Claim to America .... 77 

VIII. Ventures in the Cabots' Track .... 90 

IX. The Northeast Passage 96 

X. The Opening of Russia 104 

XL Voyages for the Muscovy Company . . 124 

XII. Revival of the Northwest Theory . . 143 

XIII. Frobisher in Arctic America 150 

XIV. The Lust for Gold 176 

XV. Hawkins in Florida 197 

XVI. Drake's Great Exploits 227 

XVII. On the Pacific Coast 253 

vii 



viii Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XVIII. Gilbert's Voyages 285 

XIX. Footprints of Colonization 308 

XX. "Virginia" 322 

XXI. Raleigh's Lost Colony 351 

XXII. Jamestown 381 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Queen Elizabeth Going Aboard the "Golden Hind" 

From a painting by Frank Brangwyn. Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

Fac-simile of Title-page of "Divers Voyages" . . 10 

From the copy in the New York Public Library (Lenox Building). 

Fac-simile of Title-page of the Third, or American, 
Volume of Hakluyt's "Voyages," Edition of 
1598-1600 32 

From a copy of the original edition in the New York Public Library 
(Lenox Building). 

"The Great Harry," an English Ship of the Fif- 
teenth Century 50 

Kidder's Sketch-map of John Cabot's Voyage in 

H97 6 9 

King Henry VIII 94 

From a photograph, copyrighted by Walker and Boutall, of a 
painting. 

Sebastian Cabot at About Eighty Years of Age . 136 - 

Reproduced from the engraving in Seyer's " History of Bristol," 
published in 1823. The original painting was attributed to 
Holbein and was destroyed by fire in 1845. 

Martin Frobisher 144 

Queen Elizabeth 180 



Illustrations 



FACING 
PAGE 



Sir John Hawkins 198 

Sir Francis Drake 228 

Drake Overhauling a Spanish Galleon .... 268 

Sir Walter Raleigh at the Age of Thirty-four . 310 

From a photograph, copyrighted by Walker and Cockerell, of the 
portrait attributed to Federigo Zaccaro in the National Por- 
trait Gallery. 

The Arrival of the Englishmen in Virginia . . 324 

From a drawing by John White, of Raleigh's first colony, 1585. 

A Map of Virginia, 1585 350 

From the map in Hariot's "Relation." 

/ 

The Lost Colony 376 

A Spanish Galleon of the Sixteenth Century . 382 



ENGLISH VOYAGES 
OF ADVENTURE AND DISCOVERY 



ENGLISH VOYAGES 

OF ADVENTURE AND DISCOVERY 



BEGINNINGS OF AMERICA 

IN the year 1582, a quarter of a century before the 
founding of Jamestown, in 1607, and thirty-eight 
years before the establishment of the Pilgrims at 
Plymouth, in 1620, there appeared in London a pam- 
phlet-volume entitled Divers Voyages touching the 
Discouerie of America and the Hands adaicent vnto the 
same, made first of all by our Englishmen and afterwards 
by the Frenchmen and Britons. 

The direct and practical object of this little book 
was the promotion of English colonization on the 
American continent, where Spain at the South and 
France at the North then had firm foothold. Its mis- 
sion was fully accomplished in giving the first effective 
impulse to the movements which led up to the ultimate 
establishment of the colonies that eventually formed 
the United States. 

So it has a peculiar interest, especially for all Amer- 
icans who would know their country, as a first source 
of the True History of the American Nation. 

I 



2 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

The name of the compiler was modestly veiled in the 
earlier impressions under the initials "R. H." appended 
to an "Epistle Dedicatorie," addressed to "Master 
Phillip Sydney, Esquire," which served for a preface. 
In subsequent editions, however, the author declared 
himself as "Richard Hakluyt, Preacher." 

He might with propriety have added to this simple 
clerical distinction other and broader titles. For, 
worthy as they may have been and doubtless were, the 
least of his accomplishments were those of a cleric. 
Yet under thirty when Divers Voyages appeared, he 
had already attained an assured place among scholars 
for his learning in cosmography, or the science of geog- 
raphy, and was particularly known to English men of 
affairs as an authority on Western discovery. 

Divers Voyages was skilfully designed for its special 
purpose. The various accounts then extant in print 
or in manuscript, giving particulars of the discovery of 
the whole of the coast of North America, were brought 
together and so artfully arranged as at once to en- 
lighten his laggard countrymen and to inflame their 
ambition and their desire for gain. By way of intro- 
duction was presented an informing list of writers of 
"geographie with the yeare wherein they wrote," be- 
ginning with 1300 and ending with 1580; and another 
of travellers " both by sea and by lande," between the 
years 11 78 and 1582, who also, for the most part, had 
written of their own "travayles" and voyages: Vene- 
tians, Genoese, Portuguese, Spaniards, and French- 
men, as well as Englishmen. Next followed a note 



Beginnings of America 



intended to show the "great probabilitie" by way of 
America of the much-sought-for Northwest Passage to 
India. Then came the "Epistle Dedicatorie" to "the 
right worshipfull and most vertuous gentleman" Master 
Sidney (not then knighted as Sir Philip Sidney), in 
which was detailed the compiler's argument for the 
immediate colonization of the parts of North America 
claimed by England by right of first discovery made 
under her banners by the Cabots, with this pungent 
opening sentence, cleverly calculated to sting the Eng- 
lish pride: 

"I maruaile [marvel] not a little that since the first 
discouerie of America (which is nowe full fourescore 
and tenne yeeres) after so great conquests and plant- 
ings of the Spaniardes and Portingales [Portuguese] 
there that wee of Englande could neuer have the grace 
to set footing in such fertill and temperate places as 
are left as yet vnpossessed of them." 

And farther along this tingling snapper: 

"Surely if there were in vs that desire to aduaunce 
the honour of our countrie which ought to bee in euery 
good man, wee woulde not all this while haue foreslowne 
[forborne] the possessing of those landes whiche of equitie 
and right appertaine vnto vs, as by the discourses that 
followe shall appeare more plainely." 

With these preliminaries the compiler first proceeded 
alluringly to exhibit "testimonies" of the Cabot dis- 
coveries of the mainland of North America for England 
a year before Columbus had sighted the continent. 

This evidence comprised the letters-patent of King 



Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 



Henry the seventh issued to John Cabot and his three 
sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Santius, authorizing the ex- 
ploration of new and unknown regions, under date of the 
fifth of March, 1495/6, distinguished in American history 
as "the most ancient American state paper of Eng- 
land"; a "Note of Sebastian Gabotes voyage of Dis- 
couerie taken out of an old Chronicle written by Robert 
Fabian, sometime alderman of London"; a memoran- 
dum of "three sauage men which hee brought home 
and presented vnto the King"; and another reference 
to the Cabot voyages made by the Venetian historian, 
Giovanni Battista Ramusio, in the preface to one of 
his volumes of voyages and travels published in 1550- 
1563. Next followed, in the order named, a "Declara- 
tion" by Robert Thorne, a London merchant long 
resident in Seville, Spain, setting forth the discoveries 
made in the Indies for Portugal, and demonstrating to 
Henry the eighth of England that the northern parts 
of America remained for him to "take in hande," which 
he failed to do ; a "Booke" by Thorne, still in Seville, 
later prepared, in 1527, at the request of the British 
ambassador in Spain, being an "Information" on the 
same subject; the "Relation" of John Verazzano,the 
Florentine corsair, in the service of France, describing 
his voyage of discovery, made in 1524, along the east- 
ern coast of America from about the present South 
Carolina to Newfoundland ; an account of the dis- 
covery of Greenland and various phantom islands, with 
the coast of North America, by the brothers Zeno, 
Venetian navigators, in the late fourteenth century; 



Beginnings of America 



and a report of the "true and last" discovery of Florida 
made by Captain John Ribault for France, in 1562. 

The pamphlet closed with a chapter of practical in- 
structions for intending colonists and an inviting list of 
commodities growing "in part of America not presently 
inhabited by any Christian from Florida northward." 

Its publication was a revelation to the English pub- 
lic. Before it appeared the people in general of that 
day had little knowledge of the accomplishments of 
either their own or foreign voyagers in discovery and 
for commercial advantage. Merchants engaged in 
foreign trade or ventures — and adventurous mariners, 
to be sure — kept themselves informed on what was 
going on and had gone on. But the information they 
collected was exclusively for the purposes of their own 
traffic. They were not interested in making it public. 
The real object, too, of many expeditions professing to 
aim at higher purposes, was, as John Winter Jones 
points out in his Introduction to the modern reprint of 
Divers Voyages, a. gold-mine, or a treasure-laden 
galleon on the high seas. Hakluyt's little book imme- 
diately gave a fresh turn to public interest. Its prac- 
tical effect was the speedy forwarding of the expedition 
of Sir Humphrey Gilbert in the summer of 1583, the 
first of the English nation to carry people directly to 
erect a colony in the north countries of America. This 
was an unsuccessful attempt at an establishment at 
Newfoundland, and was followed by the loss of Sir 
Humphrey with the foundering of his cockle-shell of a 
ship on the return voyage. 



6 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Two years after the appearance of Divers Voyages a 
second work came from the same hand for the same 
general object. 

This was a work of broader scope and of larger sig- 
nificance. It was prepared not for the press but for 
private and confidential circulation. It was, in effect, 
a state paper, marshalling arguments in behalf of a 
specific policy, and was intended expressly for the 
eye of queen Elizabeth, and her principal advisers. 
It exhibited the political, commercial, and religious ad- 
vantages to be derived by England from American 
colonization at a critical juncture of affairs. The 
Catholic Philip the second of Spain was now aiming at 
the "suppression of heretics throughout the world," and 
Elizabeth of England was his main object of insidious 
attack as "the principal of the princes of the reformed 
religion." The particular purpose of the work was to 
enlist the throne in the large projects formed by Walter 
Raleigh in continuation of the scheme of Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert (Raleigh's half-brother) after the lamentable 
fate of that chivalrous gentleman. 

Only three or four copies of this paper are supposed 
to have been made. Its existence was unknown to the 
historians for more than two and a half centuries. The 
credit for bringing it to public light and for its reproduc- 
tion in print was due to American bibliophiles and 
scholars. 

The discovery of it came about in this wise. In the 
eighteen fifties a copy of a "Hakluyt Manuscript" 
appeared at an auction sale of a famous private library 



Beginnings of America 



in London, and was bought by a shrewd and inde- 
fatigable collector of rare Americana, Henry Stevens 
of Vermont, at that time resident in London. On a 
blank leaf of the manuscript the purchaser found this 
pencilled memorandum, evidently made by the owner 
of the library, Lord Valentia : 

"This unpublished Manuscript of Hakluyt is ex- 
tremely rare. I procured it from the family of Sir 
Peter Thomson. The editors of the last edition [mean- 
ing the collection of Hakluyt's works published in 
1 809-1 8 1 2] would have given any money for it had it 
been known to have existed." 

Sir Peter Thomson was an eighteenth century col- 
lector of choice books, manuscripts, and literary curios- 
ities. After his death in 1770, his collection went to 
the hammer. Here the trace ends, for how Sir Peter 
got the manuscript is not disclosed. Mr. Stevens en- 
deavored to find a permanent place for the precious 
thing in the library of some American historical society 
or in the British Museum. At length, these endeavors 
failing, after two or three years, he disposed of it in 
England to Sir Thomas Phillips, another noteworthy 
collector, whose library at Thirlestane House, Chelten- 
ham, became a storehouse of historical treasure. Here 
it lay till 1868, when it was practically rediscovered 
by another American — the learned Reverend Doctor 
Leonard Woods, fourth president of Bowdoin Col- 
lege, in Maine. President Woods was at that time 
in England searching for certain papers of Sir Fernan- 
dino Gorges, the founder of Maine, and in this quest he 



8 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

visited Thirlestane House. He was one of those whose 
attention had been called to the manuscript by Mr. 
Stevens when it was in the latter's possession. But 
then the Maine scholar did not fully comprehend its 
nature. As soon, however, as he had examined it at 
Thirlestane House he recognized its historical worth. 
Thereupon he caused an exact transcript to be made, 
and printed it for the first time in the Maine His- 
torical Society's Collections for 1877. 

The thesis originally bore the caption Mr. Rawleys 
Voyage; but subsequently a title more explicitly de- 
fining its character was affixed to the copy from which 
the print is made ; and this title in turn has been re- 
duced for popular service to A Discourse on Western 
Planting. 

This "Discourse" boldly set forth the bearings of 
Raleigh's enterprise upon the power of Spain (with 
which war was ultimately proclaimed). If pursued at 
once it would be "a great bridle of the Indies of the 
King of Spain," and stay him from "flowing over all 
the face" of the firm land of America. Raleigh's plan 
contemplated a flank movement upon Spain in the seas 
of the West Indies and the Spanish Main, while Eng- 
land was preparing for intervention in the Netherlands. 
From her American possessions, in the wealth which 
her treasure-ships brought thence, Spain was deriving 
the sinews of her strength. With this wealth she was 
enabled to support her armies in Europe, build and 
equip fleets, keep alive dissensions, bribe, in her in- 
terests, "great men and whole states." Her power in 



Beginnings of America 



her American possessions Raleigh would break. Eng- 
lish colonies planted on the North American continent 
would be in position to attack her at a vulnerable point 
and arrest her treasure-ships. A surprising weakness 
of her defences in Spanish America, through the with- 
drawal of her soldiers to maintain her armies in the 
Netherlands, had been discovered by Sir John Hawkins 
and Sir Francis Drake in recent voyages. In this 
unprotected condition of the region was found a 
powerful inducement to English colonization as now 
proposed. 

The necessity of "speedy planting in divers fit places" 
upon these "lucky western discoveries" was also urged 
to prevent their being occupied by other nations which 
now had "the like intentions." The queen of Eng- 
land's title to America, "at least to so much as is from 
Florida to the circle artic," by virtue of the Cabot dis- 
coveries, was reasserted as "more lawful and right 
than the Spaniard's or any other prince's." The 
various "testimonies" to this claim were again enu- 
merated. Stress also was again laid upon the "prob- 
ability of the easy and quick finding of the Northwest 
Passage." The value to England, through her open- 
ing of the West, in the yield to her of "all the com- 
modities of Europe, Africa, and Asia," as far as her 
adventurers might travel, and in the supply of the 
wants of England's decayed trades, was dwelt upon. 
It was shown that, with the possession of this region 
planted by Englishmen, England would obtain every 
material for creating great navies — goodly timber for 



io Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

building ships, trees for masts, pitch, tar, and hemp — 
all for "no price." Thus it was apparent "how easy 
a matter it may be to this realm swarming at this day 
with valiant youths rusting and hurtful for lack of 
employment, and having good makers of cable and all 
sorts of cordage, and the best and most cunning ship- 
wrights of the world, to be lords of all those seas, and 
to spoil Philip's Indian navy, and to deprive him of 
yearly passage of his treasure into Europe." As for 
the religious argument, the zealous Protestant advocate 
reasoned that by planting in America from England 
the "glory of the gospel" would be enlarged, "sincere 
religion" be advanced therein, and a safe and sure 
place be provided "to receive people from all parts of 
the world that are forced to flee for the truth of God's 
word." 

The first copy of this illuminating Discourse was 
delivered to the queen by Hakluyt in person, in August, 
shortly before the return of Raleigh's "twoo barkes." 
Another copy was given to Elizabeth's chief secretary, 
Walsingham ; and a third, it is believed, to Sir Philip 
Sidney. 

Like Divers Voyages it had a signal effect. The two 
J barks had been sent out in April, within a month from 
the issue of a patent to Raleigh, as a preliminary ex- 
pedition, under two experienced navigators, to recon- 
noitre the southern coast above Florida and report. 
They were back in September, bringing glowing ac- 
counts of the region visited — the islands of Pamlico and 
Albemarle Sounds — together with report of their having 



'voyages -.-■;_ :: }..x . . ^"" 
America, ana 'the Hands adta'reni 

vnto rhe ;amc. madenrdof sil bvo«tr. 

And cirrtainc notes of aduertifements igz o f > ; •_! 
tions,ncceftric forfuch a< ihaSi hecrraftn 

^*>^h»akc the like attempt, : a <<>>>$ 

mill) ttoa mm** atittcjccD fceicteimfa fo|$e 





Imprinted at Lon- 
don for Thomas VYoodc0ckej, 
dmiitngihpaulr Chiruh<jmd s 

at the (ignc of ch ? bbefce bsarc* 







FAC-SIMILE OF TITLE-PAGE OF "DIVERS VOYAGES.' 
From the copy in the New York Public Library (Lenox Building). 



Beginnings of America n 

taken formal possession of the country for the queen 
of England, and, as tangible evidence, two tawny 
natives of the wilderness. With this happy outcome 
the Hakluyt Discourse clinched the matter, and Ral- 
eigh's policy was adopted. Elizabeth immediately 
bestowed upon the region the name of Virginia, in 
token of her state of life as a virgin queen ; Raleigh 
was knighted for his valour and enterprise ; Parliament 
confirmed his patent of discovery; and in April fol- 
lowing, 1585, his first colony of one hundred and 
eight persons sailed from Plymouth in a fleet of seven 
vessels and landed at Roanoke. 

From that time for twenty years, till the forfeiture of 
Elizabeth's grant by the attainder of James, in 1603, 
all that was done for American colonization by the 
English race was under Raleigh's title, and with every 
step Hakluyt was repeatedly contributing informing 
literature to the cause to keep aflame the now aroused 
spirit of adventure. 

In 1586, then in Paris, he had published, at his own 
expense, a manuscript account of Florida, written after 
the explorations of the French navigators Ribault and 
Laudonniere, in 1562-1564, and the attempted planting 
of Huguenot colonies there, ending tragically in a 
massacre by Spaniards. This manuscript he had come 
upon in archives, where it had lain hidden for above 
twenty years, "suppressed," as he averred, "by the 
malice of some too much affectioned to the Spanish 
cause." The narrative was brought out in French, 
edited by a friend and fellow scholar, Martin Basaniere, 



12 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

a professor of mathematics, and dedicated by the editor 
to Raleigh with high praise for his efforts to open the 
Western country. The following year Hakluyt issued 
in London an English translation of this book under 
the enticing title, A Notable Hi stone containing jour 
Voyages made by certayne French captaynes into Florida, 
wherein the Great Riches and Fruitfulness of the country 
with the Maners of the people, hitherto concealed, are 
brought to light; and to this edition he prefixed his own 
"Epistle Dedicatorie" to Raleigh, encouraging him, 
undismayed by previous failure, in the good work of 
Virginia colonization, which must ultimately prosper 
as these French captains' exposition of the advantages 
and resources of the region demonstrated. 

The same year, 1587, again in Paris, he published, 
also dedicated to Raleigh, and accompanied by a rare 
map, a revised edition in Latin of De Orbe Novo, the 
work of the Italian historian, Peter Martyr, giving 
the history of the first thirty years of American dis- 
covery. 

Next, in 1589, appeared the first volume of the 
magnum opus of our author, under the general title of 
The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoueries 
of the English Nation made by Sea or over Land to the 
most remote and farthest distant Quarters of the Earth 
at any time within the compass e of these 1500 years — an 
elaborate work of which the Divers Voyages was the 
germ, having the same direct object in view. Its 
scheme embraced a collection, in three volumes, of 
narratives and records, in the original, of voyages and 



Beginnings of America 13 

discoveries made by Englishmen from earliest times 
to the compiler's day, sprinkled with accounts of the 
more important explorations for foreign nations having 
relation to those for England. The initial volume 
opened with an extended "Epistle Dedicatorie" ad- 
dressed to Sir Francis Walsingham, the queen's chief 
secretary, and a more detailed "Preface to the Favour- 
able Reader," It included the main part of the Divers 
Voyages. 

Nine years later, in 1598, the first volume of a second 
edition, revised and enlarged, to include voyages made 
"within the compasse of these 1600 yeares," instead of 
fifteen hundred, made its appearance. The second 
volume of this edition followed the next year, 1599, and 
the last in 1600. They were of large size, fools-cap 
folio, and contained altogether the impressive number 
of five hundred and seventeen separate narratives of 
adventures by Englishmen from the time of King 
Arthur to and through Elizabeth's reign. 

Extended "Epistles Dedicatorie" were also prefixed 
to each of these volumes. That to the first was ad- 
dressed to Charles Howard, the vanquisher of the 
Spanish Armada, 1588. Both of those to the second 
and third were to Sir Robert Cecil, Walsingham's suc- 
cessor in the chief secretaryship, and afterward the 
Earl of Salisbury. 

With the completion of the third volume Hakluyt's 
work of research by no means ended. It was con- 
tinued untiringly till the close of his life, and sufficient 
material was left by him in manuscript to constitute a 



14 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

fourth volume. This material passed to the hands of 
Samuel Purchas, the author of Purchas his Pilgrimages, 
or Relations of the World, etc., 1613, who utilized it, 
together with matter from the Principall Navigations, 
in a work of four volumes, published in 1625, under the 
tide of Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pil- 
grimes: containing a History of the World in Sea Voy- 
ages and Land Travels by Englishmen and Others. 
Afterward the Purchas his Pilgrimages was added as a 
fifth volume to the set. The combined work became 
most popularly known as Purchas 's Pilgrims, and was 
treated by some of the early historians as the first 
source of American history. 

Nor did Hakluyt's publications of an important 
nature and with the same general object — the fostering 
of naval enterprise generally and of American coloniza- 
tion in particular — end with the issue of his magnum 
opus. In 1601 he brought out, under the title of The 
Discoveries of the World, an English translation of a 
treatise by a Portuguese, Antonio Galvano. After that 
came an English version of Peter Martyr under this 
taking title: The Historie of the West Indies: Contain- 
ing the Actes and Aduentures of the Spaniards, which 
have conquered and peopled those Countries, inriched 
with varietie of pleasant relation of the Manners, Cere- 
monies, Lawes, Governments, and Warres of the Indians: 
Published in Latin by Mr. Hakluyt and translated into 
English by M. Lok, Gent. This appeared a short time 
before the permanent colonization was effected, and 
was evidently timed to stimulate that movement. 



Beginnings of America 15 

Next, in 1609, he produced a translation from the 
Portuguese of an account of De Soto's discoveries in 
1539-1543, with a description of Florida and its riches, 
designed to encourage and foster the Virginia colony. 
To this Hakluyt gave the English title Virginia Richly 
Valued by the description of the mainland of Florida 
her next neighbour. The dedication was addressed to 
the "Right Worshipfull Counsellors and others the 
cheerefull aduenturors for the aduancement of that 
Christian and noble plantation of Virginia," and the 
booklet was commended to them as a "worke . . . 
though small in shew yet great in substance," yielding 
much light to the enterprise in which they were with 
him concerned, whether it was desired "to know the 
present and future commodities of our countrie, or the 
qualities and conditions of the Inhabitants, or what 
course is best to be taken with them." 

Two years later, in 161 1, he issued a second edition, 
for the combined purpose of buoying up the spirits of 
the young colony, now disheartened by much suffering, 
and of procuring additional aid for it at home. This 
appeared with a new and more alluring title, in which 
particular stress was laid upon the wealth of gold, sil- 
ver, and other precious things supposed to exist in the 
region, then believed to be the richest in the world: 
The worthie and famous historie of the travails, dis- 
covery and conquest of that great continent of Terra 
Florida being lively paralleled with that of our own now 
inhabited Virginia. As also the commodities of said 
country with divers and excellent and rich mynes of 



1 6 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

golde, silver, and other metals etc. which cannot but give 
us a great and exceeding hope for our Virginia being so 
neere to one continent etc. 

This was fittingly Hakluyt's last published work. 



II 

RICHARD HAKLUYT THE MAN 

BEYOND the bare data of his birth and antece- 
dents the story of Richard Hakluyt's life is 
gathered largely from his own writings, found 
for the most part in shreds of autobiography running 
through the several extended "Epistles Dedicatorie" 
introducing his published volumes. It is a winsome 
and an inspiriting story of a man of action behind the 
scenes of great performances rather than in the fore- 
front: of a singularly modest man not forth-pressing 
among his contemporaries, yet ranking in great accom- 
plishments with the best of "Queen Elizabeth's men." 
Even the exact place and date of his birth are not 
stated by any of his biographers. All that appears to 
be definitely fixed is that he was born near London 
about the year 1553. That was the year that Edmund 
Spenser was born; one year after the birth of Sir Walter 
Raleigh, and one year before the birth of Sir Philip 
Sidney, both of whom were to become his confreres in 
schemes of American colonization. He was five years 
old when Elizabeth came to the throne. Eleven years 
after his birth Shakspere was born, and he died the same 
year that Shakspere died. Thus we have the chro- 

17 



1 8 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

nology of his life, 1553-16 1 6, his active career extending 
through the blossom and the bloom of the dazzling 
Elizabethan period. 

Richard Hakluyt was of an ancient Hertfordshire 
family, dating back in that historic county to the thir- 
teenth century. The family seat was at Yatton, or 
Eyton, not far from the old town of Leominster. They 
were of Welsh extraction, and our cosmographer may 
have indulged a personal pride in the legend of "the 
most ancient discovery of the West Indies," made by a 
Welshman in the twelfth century, three hundred years 
before Columbus. Hakluyts appear to have been 
early preferred for public station in Hertfordshire. 
The name (then generally spelled Hackluit) is found 
in the lists of high sheriffs for the county from the 
reign of Edward the second to Henry the eighth. In 
the second year of Henry the fourth Leonard Hackluit, 
knight, was sheriff. Walter Hakelut was knighted in 
the thirty-fourth year of Edward the first. Others of 
the name are seen among early members of Parliament. 
Thomas Hakeluyt was chancellor of the diocese of 
Hertford in 1349, in the latter part of Edward the 
third's reign. Richard Hakluyt of Yatton, afterward 
of London, an elder cousin of our Richard, was a 
cosmographer before him, and esteemed in his time 
"as well by some principal ministers of state as by 
several most noted persons among the mercantile part 
of the kingdom, as a great encourager of navigation 
and improvement of trade, art, and manufactures." 

Our Richard Hakluyt was the second of four brothers, 



Richard Hakluyt the Man 19 

all of whom were liberally educated. The eldest, 
Thomas, was trained at the Westminster School and 
at Trinity College, Cambridge. He became a cele- 
brated physician. Richard followed Thomas at the 
Westminster School when he was fourteen years old, 
being elected one of the queen's scholars to that " fruit- 
full nurserie," as he terms it. He remained at West- 
minster for six years and then passed up to Christ 
College, Oxford. While a schoolboy the love of geog- 
raphy and maritime discovery was implanted in him 
by his cousin Richard, and so agreeably that he deter- 
mined to make the pursuit of these branches of science 
his life-avocation. How this came about let him relate 
in his own quaint language, translated, for more com- 
fortable reading, into modern English. 

"I do remember that being a youth and one of her 
Majesty's scholars at Westminster, that fruitful nur- 
sery, it was my hap to visit the chamber of M. Richard 
Hakluyt, my cousin, a Gentleman of the Middle Tem- 
ple, well known unto you, at a time when I found lying 
open upon his board certain books of Cosmography 
with an universal Map. He seeing me somewhat 
curious in the view thereof began to instruct my ig- 
norance by shewing me the division of the earth into 
three parts after the old account, and then according 
to the latter & better distribution, into more: he 
pointed with his wand to all the known Seas, Gulfs, 
Bays, Straights, Capes, Rivers, Empires, Kingdoms, 
Dukedoms, and Territories of each part; with declara- 
tion also of their special commodities & particular 



20 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

wants, which by the benefit of traffic & intercourse of 
merchants, are plentifully supplied. From the Map 
he brought me to the Bible, and turning to the 107 
Psalm, directed me to- the 23 & 24 verses, where I read, 
that they which go down to the sea in ships, and occupy 
by the great waters, they see the works of the Lord and 
his wonders in the deep, &c. Which words of the 
Prophet together with my cousin's discourse (things of 
high and rare delight to my young nature) took in me 
so deep an impression, that I constantly resolved, if 
ever I were preferred to the University, where better 
time and more convenient place might be ministered 
for their studies, would by God's assistance prosecute 
that knowledge and kind of literature, the doors of 
which whereof (after a sort) were so happily opened 
before me." 

Hakluyt entered Oxford in 1570, and took the de- 
gree of bachelor of arts in 1574 and master of arts in 
1577. While diligently and faithfully pursuing the 
regular college course, true to his boyhood resolution 
he devoted all his spare time to his self imposed studies. 
He became so proficient in them that after taking his 
master's degree he was chosen to read "public lec- 
tures" on the science of cosmography and navigation. 
The lectures were delivered presumably in London and 
with much satisfaction to his hearers, among whom we 
may be sure were found master mariners and common 
seamen, as his relation proceeds: 

"When not long after I was removed to Christ- 
Church in Oxford, my exercise of duty first performed, 



Richard Hakluyt the Man 21 

I fell to my intended course, and by degrees read over 
whatsoever printed and written discoveries and voyages 
I found extant either in the Greek, Latin, Italian, Span- 
ish, Portugal [Portuguese], French, or English lan- 
guages, and in my public lectures was the first that 
produced and shewed both the old and imperfectly 
composed, and the new lately reformed Maps, Globes, 
Spheres, and other instruments of this Art for demon- 
stration in the common schools, to the singular pleasure 
and general contentment of my auditory." 

Possibly at these lectures, certainly soon after, he 
was advocating with much earnestness the pressing 
need of popular technical education to produce in- 
formed and skilful mariners, and this he continued 
persistently to urge in all his after writings. He would 
have had established in London a lectureship, or a 
school of nautical crafts, from which English seamen 
might be graduated complete navigators. To this end 
he dwelt much upon the advantages of the navigators 
of rival nations, gained largely through their scientific 
training. At that time Spain was maintaining in 
Seville, at the " Contractation House," or Exchange, a 
"Learned Reader" in the art of navigation and a 
board of examiners, of which the reader was a mem- 
ber, and np man in Spain could obtain the charge of a 
ship for the Indies till he had attended the reader's 
course and had passed the examining board. A cen- 
tury earlier the "hero nation" of Portugal had estab- 
lished a school of navigation, instituted by that heroic 
figure in maritime discovery, Prince Henry, surnamed 



22 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

"The Navigator." Despite, however, the force of 
Hakluyt's sound arguments, and the endorsement of 
his proposition by such seasoned mariners as Sir 
Francis Drake and by various men of affairs, the lec- 
tureship never was founded, greatly to his regret. 

When Hakluyt began his studies in cosmography 
systematically the only English work at his hand touch- 
ing the subject was the Historie of Travayle by Richard 
Eden, dating from 1555. This was the first work of 
its kind produced in England, and a new edition was 
brought out while Hakluyt was a student at Oxford. 
Although it was a classic from a scholarly Englishman, 
it presented only a limited view of maritime discovery. 
Consequently the young student was obliged to pursue 
his investigations chiefly in various foreign works, and 
among manuscripts deposited in private libraries or 
collections. He had not progressed far before he had 
become impressed with the backwardness of England 
in Western occupation since the discovery of the North 
American continent under her auspices in 1497 ana< 
1498. Great deeds had been performed by intrepid 
English explorers to the North and Northeast, and 
English commerce had been advanced in the rich 
regions of the East; but on the Western continent no 
further attempt of moment toward exploration or set- 
tlement had been made by Englishmen from the finish 
of Henry the seventh's reign to Elizabeth's time. 
Meanwhile other nations had established foothold in 
these "fair and fruitful parts," to England's disad- 
vantage. Thus Hakluyt came clearly to see that mari- 



Richard Hakluyt the Man 23 

time traffic united with American colonization must be 
the means that England should adopt, without further 
delay, if she were to improve the condition of her people 
and become a naval power in the world. 

Imbued with these convictions he early set out, per- 
haps while still delivering the "Public Lectures," defi- 
nitely to promote this policy with voice and pen. Early 
he is found in close touch with men leading in state 
affairs and in bold enterprises. He is much in cor- 
respondence with Sir Francis Walsingham, the queen's 
chief secretary. He gets points from Sir Francis Drake 
after that great navigator's return, in 1580, from the 
first circumnavigation of the globe by an Englishman, 
loaded with treasure, the spoil of Spanish harbours on 
the Pacific, and crowned with honours for the discovery 
of California for the English and its occupation as 
"New Albion." He has intimate intercourse with Sir 
Humphrey Gilbert, to whom, in 1578, Elizabeth had 
given her letters patent to discover and to colonize 
"remote, heathen, and barbarous lands" — the first 
grant of the kind ever made by an English sovereign, — 
and, as we have seen, prepares his first book, Divers 
Voyages, in aid of Sir Humphrey's project. Walter 
Raleigh, Gilbert's half-brother and associate, who had 
known Hakluyt and was conversant with his studies in 
cosmography when he was at college, became his 
patron. Philip Sidney, to whom he dedicates the 
Divers Voyages, had been his fellow-student at Oxford. 

Hakluyt planned to accompany Gilbert's fatal ex- 
pedition of 1583, but before its departure he was ap- 



24 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery- 
pointed chaplain to Sir Edward Stafford, the queen's 
ambassador to Paris. This preferment evidently came 
to him directly through his interest in nautical affairs. 
Those who obtained it for him believed that his ser- 
vices to the cause of Western discoveries and coloniza- 
tion would then be most valuable from that post of 
observation and influence. Walsingham expected him 
to make diligent enquiry of "such things as may yield 
any light unto our Western discoveries," and he jus- 
tified this hope by undertaking shrewdly to collect in- 
formation of the movements of the Spanish and as 
well the French, and to recommend measures for the 
furtherance of the cause which he had most at heart. 
No sooner was he established at Paris than he became 
absorbed in this special mission, and it continued 
almost his sole occupation while he remained with the 
embassy, which was for a period of five years. 

Upon the failure of the Gilbert enterprise and the 
loss of Sir Humphrey he is ardently enlisted in Ra- 
leigh's project, furnishing in its interest, at Raleigh's 
request, "discourses both in print and written hand." 
These "discourses" are supposed to have been em- 
bodied in Raleigh's memorial to the queen which 
brought him his patent of March, 1584, as liberal as 
Gilbert's. The important document on Mr. Rawleys 
Voyage, or A Particular Discourse on Western planting, 
may have embodied some of the features of the memo- 
rial. Hakluyt wrote the "Discourse" in London when 
ostensibly on a summer vacation from his duties at 
Paris. At the same time he was busied in judicious 



Richard Hakluyt the Man 25 

"trumpeting" of the enterprise among statesmen and 
merchant adventurers. 

He continued hand in hand with Raleigh through 
the latter's repeated attempts to plant his Virginia 
colonies, encouragingly buoyant and hopeful in each 
new venture following dismal and sometimes tragic 
failure; and he became foremost in the company of 
gentlemen and merchants to whom Raleigh was com- 
pelled to assign his patent in 1588. Afterward, upon 
the accession of James the first, he was the chief pro- 
moter of a petition to the king for a new grant of pat- 
ents for Virginia colonization that brought the royal 
charter of April, 1606, under which were formed the 
corporations subsequently known as the London and 
the Plymouth companies, between whom was to be 
equally divided the great tract of country lying between 
the thirty-fourth and the forty-fifth degrees of latitude 
and reaching to the backwoods without bound. He 
was made one of the patentees of the London, or South 
Virginia, Company, which effected the first permanent 
English settlement — at Jamestown, in 1606. 

His great work of The Principal Navigations was in 
preparation while Raleigh's projects were under way. 
Its scheme was drawn at the outset with remarkable 
breadth and on a lofty scale. While in Stafford's ser- 
vice at Paris he tells us, "I both heard in speech and 
read in books, other nations miraculously extolled for 
their discoveries and notable enterprises by sea, but 
the English of all others, for their sluggish security, 
and continual neglect of the like attempts . . . either 



26 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

ignominiously reported or exceedingly condemned 
[ ? condensed]. . . . Thus both hearing and reading the 
obliquy of our nation, and finding few or none of our 
own men able to reply herein; and further, not seeing 
any man to have care to recommend to the world the 
industrious labours and painful travels of our country- 
men; for stopping the mouths of reproachers, myself 
. . . determined, notwithstanding all difficulties, to 
undertake the burden of that work wherein all others 
pretended either ignorance or lack of leisure, or want 
of sufficient argument, whereas (to speak truly) the 
huge toil and the small profit to ensue, were the chief 
causes of the refusal." 

In the laborious collection of his material, much 
"dispersed, scattered, and hidden in several hucksters' 
hands," as he says, he sought the assistance of the 
foremost scholars, bibliographers, and writers, and cul- 
tivated the acquaintance «of all classes of men who 
could give him information. He tells of talking with 
Don Antonio, the Portuguese Pretender, when in 
Paris, and with several of Antonio's "best captains and 
pilots, one of whom was born in the East Indies." He 
became friendly with travelled French sailors. One of 
them gave him a piece of supposed silver ore, and 
showed him "beasts' skins draped and painted by In- 
dians." Another exhibited "a piece of the tree called 
Sassafras brought from Florida, and expounded its 
high medical virtues," which afterward was much 
sought by voyagers to America. He browsed in the 
king's library at Paris. He established friendly rela- 



Richard Hakluyt the Man 27 

tions with foreign cosmographers and exchanged letters 
with them and with other foreign scholars. In London 
he found and copied rare manuscripts in Lord Lum- 
ley's "stately library"; had access to the queen's privy 
gallery at Westminster; and to a rich cabinet of curios- 
ities brought home by travellers. He sought English 
sea-captains upon their return to port and had inform- 
ing interviews with them about their adventures. Some 
brought him tales from Spain about the natives of 
Florida. Once he travelled two hundred miles on 
horseback to interview one Thomas Butts, then the 
only survivor of a disastrous English voyage to New- 
foundland in 1536. 

The initial volume was completed after his final 
return to England at the end of his term with the 
French embassy. Its publication was a distinct event 
in English letters. The lofty motives that impelled 
him to the production of the enlarged edition in three 
volumes he details in his picturesquely phrased "Epistle 
Dedicatorie" to Lord Charles Howard, prefixed to 
volume one. 

" Right Honourable and my very good Lord,''* he 
here writes, "after I had long since published in Print 
many Navigations and Discoveries of Strangers in 
divers languages, as well here at London as in the city 
of Paris during my five years abode in France with the 
worthy knight, Sir Edward Stafford, your brother-in- 
law, his Majesty's most prudent and careful ambas- 
sador ligier with the French king; and had waded on 
still further and further in the sweet study of the his- 



28 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

tory of Cosmography, I began at length to conceive 
that with diligent observation, something might be 
gathered which might commend our nation for their 
high courage and singular activity in the search and 
discovery of the most unknown quarters of the world. 
. . . The ardent love of my country devoured all diffi- 
culties, and, as it were, with a sharp goad provoked me 
and thrust me forward into this troublesome and pain- 
ful action. And after great charges and infinite cares, 
after many watchings, toils, and travels, and wearying 
out of my weak body, at length I have collected three 
several volumes of the English Navigations, Traffics, 
and Discoveries to strange, remote, and far distant 
countries. Which work of mine I have not included 
with the compass of things duly done in these later 
days, as though little or nothing worthy of memory had 
been performed in former ages, but mounting aloft by 
the space of many hundred years, have brought to 
light many very rare and worthy monuments which 
long have lain miserably scattered in musty corners and 
wretchedly hidden in misty darkness, and were very 
like for the greatest part to have been buried in per- 
petual oblivion." 

In his Preface to the same volume, addressed to the 
"Friendly Reader," he further emphasizes this point 
with the quaintly fashioned statement that in bringing 
these "antiquities smothered and buried in dark 
silence" to light, he has incorporated "into one body 
the torn and scattered limbs of our ancient and late 
navigations by sea, our voyages by land, and traffic of 



Richard Hakluyt the Man 29 

merchandise by both," and restored "each particular 
member being before displaced, to their true joints and 
ligaments." In other words, by the help of geography 
and chronology, which he terms "the Sun and the 
Moon, the right eye and the left of all history," he 
has "referred each particular relation to the due time 
and space." He narrates again in this Preface the 
toils that have been involved in bringing his work into 
this "homely and rough-hewn shape." "What restless 
nights," he exclaims, "what painful days, what heat, 
what cold I have endured; how many long and charge- 
able journeys I travelled: how many famous libraries 
I have searched into; what variety of ancient and 
modern writers I have perused; what a number of old 
records, patents, privileges, letters, etc., I have re- 
deemed from obscurity and perishing; into how mani- 
fold acquaintance I have entered; what expenses I have 
not spared; and yet what fair opportunities of private 
gain, preferment, and ease I have neglected!" Yet, 
"howbeit, the honour and benefit of this commonweal 
wherein I live and breathe, hath made all difficulties 
seem easy, all pains and industry pleasant, and all ex- 
penses of light value and moment unto me." 

Here speaks the true scholar and the genuine patriot. 

In 1585, while he was yet in France, ecclesiastical 
preferment came to Hakluyt, the reversion of the next 
prebendal stall that should become vacant being that 
year secured to him by Queen Elizabeth's mandate; 
and the following year, upon the death of its incum- 
bent, he took possession of the first stall in the cathedral 



30 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

of Bristol, although he did not give up his chaplaincy 
at the British embassy and finally return to England 
till 1588. In the spring of 1590 he was instituted to 
the rectory of Wetteringsett cum Blochford, in the 
county of Suffolk. In 1602 he became prebendary of 
Westminster. In 1612 he obtained the rectory of 
Gedney in Lincolnshire. He married about the year 
1594, when occupying the Wetteringsett rectory. 

These various clerical duties were apparently not 
exacting. At all events they did not interrupt the 
steady prosecution of his work of historical research 
and publication, nor abate a jot of his ardour for the 
advancement of American colonization. In his latter 
years he gathered around him a group of young men 
whom he inspired further to pursue or continue the 
work to which he had practically devoted his life. At 
his suggestion and through his friendly encouragement 
translations by various hands of standard works on 
Africa, China, and other little known parts, were then 
brought out. His own final publications were dated 
from Westminster. 

He died presumably in his apartment at Westminster, 
on the twenty-third day of November, 16 16, seven 
months after Shakspere. His burial place was in St. 
Peter's Church, Westminster Abbey, but no inscription 
marks his grave. 

He left a fair estate, comprising " the manor house of 
Bridge Place" and several houses in Westminster. 
This estate passed to his only son, Edmund Hakluyt, a 
Trinity College man, who, we are told, had not the 



Richard Hakluyt the Man 31 

prudence to keep it, but dispersed it through usurers' 
and sheriffs' hands. 

Like Raleigh, Hakluyt never came to America, al- 
though more than once planning to make the voyage. 
With the permanent colonization of Virginia at last 
achieved, he was offered the living of Jamestown; but 
in place of himself he supplied it with a curate. 

Equally with Raleigh he shares, and is awarded, the 
title of virtual founder of the English colonies in North 
America. 



Ill 

"THE PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS " 

IN Hakluyt's monumental work of The Principal 
Navigations we have the whole brave story of 
English adventure through the centuries from the 
dim old days of the Saxon kings — when the known 
world was a little thing, only a spot on the map of 
to-day — to the Tudors' times, with the discoveries of the 
New World, advancement into remote quarters of 
the Old World, the expansion of commerce, and the 
planting of colonies in America. It is truly, as aptly 
termed by James Anthony Froude, the prose epic of the 
modern English nation. 

The first issue of 1589, the single volume in three 
parts, comprehended the main features of this story; 
the three-volumed second edition, 1598-1600, amplified 
it with a wealth of added incident and richness of color. 
The three parts of the portly volume of 1589, covering 
eight hundred and twenty-five foolscap pages, com- 
prised successively the narratives of English voyages 
that had been performed to the South and Southeastern 
regions of the Old World; the North and Northeastern 

32 



THIRD AND LAST 

VOLVME OF THE VOY- 
AGES, NAVIGATIONS, TRAF- 

fiques., and Dilcoueries of the Sngli/h Ration, and in 

Tome few placesywherc they haue not been,of (hangers ,per- 

formcd within arid before the time ofthefc hundred yeeres, to all 

pares of the A'eafeund world of tsfmerk afix the Weft Indiei, from 75. 
degrees of Northerly to 5 7.of Southerly latitude: 

As namely ro Engronland, Meta Incognita, Eftotilancl> 

Tterra de Labrador JS[ewfoundland } v^ Tin grand bay, the gulfe of S.Law> 

fence ,and the Riuer of Canasta to Hochelaga and Saguenay, iXong the coaft oiAram- 

bcf,to the fhores and niaincs of Virginia and Florid* find on the Welt or backfide of them 

both, 10 the rich and plcafant countries of Nneu*'Bifiaia,CiboU,7igiiex, Genie, 

Qui(iira t to the ij.prouincesofthekingdomeofyNTiw^^K^tothe 

bottome of the gulfc of California jind vp the 

Riuer ofBuena Gum: 

And Iikewife to all the yles both fmall and great lying before the 

cape of Florida,Thebty of Mexieo.zni Tierrafrma,to the coafts and Inlands 
of Nerse Spaine, Tierra firma ,and Guiana, vp the mighty Riuers oiOrenoqxc, 

Dtfiiirie, and Martman,m euery part of the coaftof Eu/S ,.to the Riuer oiVUu, 

' through the Streights of MagtUon forward andbackward>3ndcothc 

South of the raid Streights as farrc as $7.dcgrees: 

Andfrom thence on the backfide of America, along the coaftes,harbours, 

and capes of Chili, Peru,lVicaragua,JVueuaEifaruiiiJi'xeiia Galicia^CuUacan, 
CaIfiTnU,7fywt Mkm,ind more Northerly at farrc as 4} .degrees: 

Together with the two rcno wmed, and profperous voyages of Sir Francis Drake 

and M,Tln>rmiCmlifb round aboutthe circumference ofthe whole earth, and 

diucrs other voyages intended and fct forth for that coutfe. 

CoBeltedby Richard Haklvy* Treacher, andfmetimtt 

ftudent of Chrill-Chureh in Oxford. 




^ Imprinted at London by (jeow'BifhopfRglfe 
Nf»berie,znd Robert B a Ric ^R. 



Anno Dom. iooo. 



FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE THIRD, OR AMER- 
ICAN, VOLUME OF HAKLUYT'S "VOYAGES," 
EDITION OF 1598-1600. 

From a copy of the original edition in the New York Public Library (Lenox 

Building). 



"The Principal Navigations" 33 

travels; and the Western, or New World, navigations. 
The contents were elaborately detailed in the full title- 
page. 

The prefatory address "to the Favourable Reader" 
discloses the thoroughness of the compiler's work. He 
has been careful in every possible case to present exact 
copies of the original narratives. Wherever he has 
copied from an historian, or "authour of authoritie," 
either "stranger or naturall"— foreigner or native— he 
has "recorded the same word for word with his par- 
ticular name and page of booke" where the "tes- 
timonie" is extant. "If the same were not reduced 
into our common language," he has given it in the 
original followed by a translation. And "to the ende 
that those men which were the paynefull and personall 
travellers might reape that good opinion and iust [just] 
commendation which they haue deserued, and further, 
that euery man might answere for himselfe, iustifie 
[justify] his reports, and stand accountable for his own 
doings," he has "referred euery voyage to his Author 
which both in person hath performed, and in writing 
hath left the same." He adds that while he " meddles" 
in this work with the navigations only of the English 
nation he quotes in a few places "some strangers as 
witnesses of the things done"; yet these foreigners are 
only such as "either faythfully remember, or suffi- 
ciently confirme" the Englishmen's travels. 

A map of the world inserted in this volume was taken 
by Hakluyt from the atlas of Abraham Ortelius, a cele- 
brated Flemish geographer, published at Antwerp in 



34 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

1570. It was substituted temporarily for one in prep- 
aration for the book, but not completed by the engraver 
in time. Hakluyt alludes to this, in the address "to the 
Favourable Reader," as "a very large and most exact 
terrestriall Globe collected and reformed according to 
the newest, secretest, and latest discoveries, both Spanish, 
Portugall, and English, composed by M[aster] Em- 
merie Mollineux of Lambeth, a rare gentleman in his 
profession, being therein for divers yeares, greatly sup- 
ported by the purse and liberalise of the worshipfull 
marchant M[aster] William Sanderson." What is sup- 
posed to be the Mollineux map has been found in rare 
copies of this volume and of the second edition. A 
map bound in a treasured copy of the 1589 edition in 
the Boston Public Library contains this memorandum 
written on the back: "This map is a facsimile of the 
map of the world found in some of the first editions of 
this book. By Sabin and others it is attributed to 
Emmerie Mollineux of Lambeth, by Capt. Markham 
and others, to Edward Wright, the mathematician who 
perfected and rendered practicable what we know to- 
day as Mercator's projection. Hallam describes this as 
'the best map of the 16th century and one of uncommon 
rarity.' Only nine copies are known to exist." 

Professor Walter Raleigh, in his essay on the English 
Voyages which accompanies the modern reprint of the 
Navigations (Glasgow, 1903), recalls the belief of 
Shaksperian authorities, among whom he is counted, 
that this is the map alluded to in Twelfth Night, in the 
passage (Act III, Scene II), "He does smile his face 



"The Principal Navigations" 35 

into more lines than is in the new map with the aug- 
mentation of the Indies." 

The titles of the three-volumed second edition set 
forth the contents of each book with the same minute 
detail as that of the initial volume of 1589. 



IV 

THE EARLY VOYAGES 

THE English voyages begin with the adventures 
by the Britons northward in the sixth century 
for conquest. So Hakluyt places in the fore- 
front of the Principal Navigations legendary accounts 
of the travels of British and Saxon kings. First are 
reproduced from ancient chronicles records of "the 
noble actes of Arthur and Malgo," in the years 517 and 
580, respectively, Arthur, after having "subdued all 
parts of Ireland," sailing to "Island" (Iceland) and 
"the most northeast parts of Europe"; and Malgo 
into the North seas, recovering to his empire the "six 
islands of the Ocean sea, which before had been made 
tributaries by King Arthur, namely, Ireland, Island, 
Gotland, Orkney, Norway, and Denmark." 

Next follow fragmentary narratives of seventh-cen- 
tury voyages. Two "testimonies" are given of the 
exploits of the Saxon king, Edwin, with his conquest of 
the Isles of Man and Anglesey and the other north- 
western islands of the Britons lying between Britain 
and Ireland, in the year 624. The second of these 
"testimonies" related how Edwin also subdued to the 
crown of England the Hebrides, "commonly called the 

36 



The Early Voyages yj 

Western Islands." Then is reproduced the story of 
the voyage of Bertus, "general of an army sent into 
Ireland by Ecfridus [Ecgfrith] king of Northumber- 
land" in the year 684. This warrior, the chronicler 
relates, "miserably wasted that innocent nation being 
always most friendly unto the people of England," 
sparing neither churches nor monasteries, while the 
Islanders "repelled arms with arms and craving God's 
aid from heaven with continual imprecations and 
curses they pleaded for revenge." 

The first recorded English voyage having discovery 
with expansion of trade for its object was that of one 
Octher to the northward, at the close of the ninth cen- 
tury, about the year 890. Octher was a prosperous 
whale-hunter, of Heligoland in the North Sea. The 
special purpose of his venture was to "increase the 
knowledge" of the northern coasts and countries "for 
the more commodity of fishing of horse-whales which 
have in their teeth bones of great price and excellence." 
He found what he sought, and brought home some 
specimens of big whalebones, which he presented to 
the English king. The skins of the horse-whales he 
reported were "very good to make cables for ships, 
and so used" by the hardy dwellers on these coasts. A 
few years earlier Sighelmus, Bishop of Sheburne, as 
messenger of King "Alphred" (iElfrid), bearing alms 
and gifts to the king of Rome, had penetrated into 
India, and returned to England with costly spices and 
divers strange and precious stones, many of which 
stones long after remained in the monuments of the 



38 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

church. Following Octher one Wolstan made a navi- 
gation into the sound of Denmark, of which brief 
account is given. 

With these narrations of voyages for conquest and 
trade are interwoven tales of pilgrimages to the Holy 
Land, "for devotion's sake," and imagined relief from 
the penalties of sin, forerunners of the Crusades of 
succeeding centuries. Earliest of all chronicled is the 
legend of the "Travaile of Helena," in the fourth 
century, before 337. She was Helena Flavia Augusta, 
afterward the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine 
"the Great," emperor and king of Britain. She be- 
came a Christian when Constantine was converted. 
By reason of her "singular beauty, faith, religion, 
goodness, and godly majesty," she was "famous in all 
the world." She was "skilful in divinity," and wrote 
and composed "divers books and certain Greek verses." 
She made the perilous journey to Jerusalem toward the 
close of a long life, being "warned by some visions," 
and piously visited "all the places that Christ had 
frequented." She is said to have discovered "the holy 
sepulchre and the true cross." Then follows a note on 
Constantine's travels to Greece, Egypt, and Persia, in 
about 339. He "overthrew the false gods of the 
heathen, and by many laws, often revived, he abro- 
gated the worshipping of images in all the countries of 
Greece, Egypt, Persia, Asia, and the whole Roman 
empire, commanding Christ only to be worshipped." 

In the tenth century English ships began to be found 
in far distant seas. Fragments are recorded concern- 



The Early Voyages 39 

ing the beginnings and growth of the "classical and 
warlike" shipping of England in that period. We have 
the spectacle of the grand navy of the Saxon Eadgar, 
"the Peaceful," who succeeded to the whole realm in 
959, comprising "four thousand sail at the least." 
With this fleet it was his annual pastime to make 
"summer progresses" round almost the whole of his 
then large monarchy, thus demonstrating "to the 
world" that "as he wisely knew the ancient bounds and 
limits of the British empire" so he "could and would 
royally, justly, and triumphantly enjoy the same spite 
the devil and maugre the force of any foreign potentate." 
By the twelfth century London, as described in ex- 
tracts from a foreign writer, had become a "noble 
Citie," frequented with the "traffique of Marchants 
resorting thither out of ail nations," and having "out- 
landish wares . . . conveighed" into it from the "fa- 
mous river of the Thames." At the same time, and 
by the same writer, the "famous Towne of Bristow" 
(Bristol) is represented "with an Haven belonging 
thereunto which is a commodious and safe receptacle 
for all ships directing their course for the same from 
Ireland, Norway, and other outlandish and foren 
[foreign] countreys." 

To this century, in 11 70, is credited the "most an- 
cient" discovery of the West Indies by Madoc, the 
Welshman, and his subsequent attempt at colonization 
on one of the islands. Hakluyt takes the tale "out of 
the history of Wales lately published by M[aster] David 
Powel, Doctor of Divinity." Madoc was a son of Owen 



40 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Guyneth, prince of North Wales. Upon Guyneth's 
death his sons "fell at debate who should inherit after 
him." The eldest, Edward, or Jorweth Drwydion, was 
counted "unmeet to govern because of the maim on 
his face," and Howell took up the rule. But Howell 
was born out of matrimony. So the second legitimate 
son, David, rose against him, and "fighting with him 
slew him." Thereafter David enjoyed quietly the 
whole land of North Wales till Edward's son came of 
age. Meanwhile Madoc had left the land in conten- 
tion betwixt his brothers, and had sought adventures 
by sea. At this point the story of discovery begins. 
Having prepared "certain ships with men and muni- 
tions" he sailed westward; and leaving the coast of 
Ireland far north he at length came "unto a land un- 
known, where he saw many strange things." This 
land, the Welsh historian declared, "must needs be 
some part of that country of which the Spaniards 
affirm themselves to be the first finders since Hanno's 
time; whereupon it is manifest that that country was 
by Britaines [Britons] discovered long before Columbus 
led any Spaniards thither." The historian admitted 
that "there be many fables" regarding Madoc's dis- 
covery, but, notwithstanding, the fact remained; "sure 
it is there he was." Next follows the entertaining 
legend of Madoc's attempted settlement: 

"And after he had returned home and declared the 
pleasant and fruitfull countreys that he had seene with- 
out inhabitants, and, upon the contrary part, for what 
barren & wild ground his brethren and nephewes did 



The Early Voyages 41 

murther one another, he prepared a number of ships, 
and got him such men and women as were desirous to 
live in quietnesse: and taking leave of his friends, 
tooke his journey thitherward againe. Therefore it is 
to be supposed that he and his people inhabited part of 
those countreys: for it appeareth by Francis Lopez de 
Gomara, that in Acuzamil and other places the people 
honoured the crosse. Whereby it may be gathered that 
Christians had bene there before the comming of the 
Spanyards. But because this people were not many 
they followed the maners of the land which they came 
unto, & used the language they found there. This 
Madoc arriving in the Westerne country, unto the which 
he came in the yere 11 70, left most of his people there, 
and returning backe for more of his owne nation, 
acquaintance & friends to inhabit that faire & large 
countrey, went thither againe with ten saile, as I find 
noted by Gutyn Owen." Hakluyt rounds off this en- 
gaging chapter with this swelling verse "of Meredith 
sonne of Rhesus," singing Madoc's praises: 

" Madoc I am the sonne of Owen Guynedd 
With stature large, and comely grace adorned : 
No lands at home nor store of wealth me please, 
My minde was whole to search the Ocean seas." 

With the opening of the twelfth century the fiery 
Crusades from the Christian nations for the rescue of 
Jerusalem from the infidel were well under way. Pre- 
liminary to the pitiful and bloody record, this account 



42 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

of a peaceful voyage, in the year 1064, in which Eng- 
lishmen had part, with an artless touch of autobiog- 
raphy by the narrator, Ingulphus, afterward abbot of 
Croiland, is reproduced: 

"I, Ingulphus, an humble servant of reverend Guth- 
lac and of his monastery of Croiland, borne in England, 
and of English parents, at the beautifull citie of Lon- 
don, was in my youth, for the attaining of good letters, 
placed first at Westminster, and afterward sent to the 
Universitie of Oxford. And having excelled divers of 
mine equals in learning of Aristotle, I inured my selfe 
somewhat unto the first & second Rhethorique of 
Tullie. And as I grew in age, disdayning my parents 
meane estate, and forsaking mine owne native soyle, I 
affected the Courts of kings and princes, and was de- 
sirous to be clad in silke, and to weare brave and costly 
attire. And loe, at the same time William our sov- 
ereigne king now, but then Erie of Normandie, with a 
great troup of followers and attendants, came unto 
London, to conferre with king Edward, the Confessour, 
his kinsman. Into whose company intruding my selfe, 
and proffering my service for the performance of any 
speedy or weightie afFayres, in short time, after I had 
done many things with good successe, I was knowen 
and most entirely beloved by the victorious Erie him- 
selfe, and with him I sayled into Normandie. And 
there being made his secretarie, I governed the Erles 
Court (albeit with the envie of some) as my selfe 
pleased, yea, whom I would I abased and preferred 
whom I thought good. 



The Early Voyages 43 

"When as therefor, being carried with a youthfull 
heat and lustie humour, I began to be wearie even of 
this place, wherein I was advanced so high above my 
parentage, and with an inconstant minde, and an 
affection too too ambitious, most vehemently aspired 
at all occasions to climbe higher: there went a report 
throughout all Normandie, that divers Archbishops of 
the Empire, and secular princes were desirous for their 
soules health, and for devotion sake, to goe on pilgrim- 
age to Jerusalem. Wherefore out of the family of our 
lorde the Earle, sundry of us, both gentlemen and 
clerkes (principall of whom was my selfe) with the 
licence and good will of our sayd lord the earle, sped us 
on that voiage, and travailing thirtie horses of us into 
high Germanie,we joyned our selves unto the Archbish- 
op of Mentz. And being with the companies of the 
Bishops seven thousand persons sufficiently provided 
for such an expedition, we passed prosperously through 
many provinces, and at length attained unto Con- 
stantinople. Where doing reverence unto the Em- 
perour Alexius, we sawe the Church of Sancta Sophia, 
and kissed divers sacred reliques. 

"Departing thence through Lycia, we fell into the 
hands of the Arabian theeves: and after we had bene 
robbed of infinite summes of money, and had lost many 
of our people, hardly escaping with extreame danger of 
our lives, at length wee joyfully entered into the most 
wished citie of Jerusalem. Where we were received by 
the most reverend, aged, and holy patriarke Sophronius, 
with great melodie of cymbals and with torch-light, and 



44 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

were accompanied unto the most divine Church of our 
Saviour his sepulchre with a solemne procession aswell 
of Syrians as of Latines. Here, how many prayers we 
uttered, what abundance of teares we shed, what deepe 
sighs we breathed foorth, our Lord Jesus Christ onely 
knoweth. Wherefore being conducted from the most 
glorious sepulchre of Christ to visite other sacred monu- 
ments of the citie, we saw with weeping eyes a great 
number of holy Churches and oratories, which Achim 
the Souldan [sultan] of Egypt had lately destroyed. 
And so having bewailed with sadde teares, and most 
sorowful and bleeding affections, all the ruines of that 
most holy city both within and without, and having 
bestowed money for the reedifying of some, we desired 
with most ardent devotion to go forth into the countrey, 
to wash our selves in the most sacred river of Jordan, 
and to kisse all the steppes of Christ. Howbeit the 
theevish Arabians lurking upon every way, would not 
suffer us to travell farre from the city by reason of their 
huge and furious multitudes. 

"Wherefor about the spring there arrived at the port 
of Joppa a fleet of ships from Genoa. In which fleet 
(when the Christian merchants had exchanged all their 
wares at the coast townes, and had likewise visited the 
holy places) wee all of us embarked, committing our 
selfes to the seas: and being tossed with many stormes 
and tempests, at length wee arrived at Brundusium: 
and so with a prosperous journey travelling thorow 
Apulia towards Rome, we there visited the habitations 
of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and did reverence 



The Early Voyages 45 

unto divers monuments of holy martyrs in all places 
thorowout the citie. From thence the archbishops and 
other princes of the empire travelling towards the right 
hand for Alemain, and we declining towards the left 
hand for France, departed asunder, taking our leaves 
with unspeakable thankes and courtesies. And so at 
length, of thirty horsemen which went out of Nor- 
mandie, fat, lustie, and frolique, we returned thither 
skarse twenty poore pilgrims of us, being all footmen, 
and consumed with leannesse to the bare bones." 

The story of the voyages of Englishmen in the 
twelfth-century Crusades, recorded in chronological 
order, opens with the chivalrous adventure of Edgar, 
grandson of Edmund, surnamed "Ironsides," accom- 
panied by "valiant Robert the son of Godwin," in the 
year 1102, when, immediately upon their arrival out, 
signal aid was rendered by them to Baldwin, the second 
Latin king of Jerusalem, whom they found hard pressed 
by the Turks at Rama. The "valiant Robert" sprang 
to the forefront, and going before the king with his 
drawn sword, he cut a lane through the enemy's camp, 
"slaying the Turks on his right hand and his left." So 
Baldwin escaped. But the knight fared ill. "Upon this 
happy success, being more eager and fierce, as he went 
forward too hastily, his sword fell out of his hand. 
Which as he stooped to take up, being oppressed by the 
whole multitude, he was there taken and bound." His 
fate was tragic. "From thence (as some say) being 
carried into Babylon, or Alcair, in Egypt, when he would 
not renounce Christ, he was tied unto a stake in the 



46 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

midst of the market-place, and being shot through with 
arrows, died a martyr." Edgar having lost his beloved 
knight, retired from crusading, and returned to Eng- 
land honoured with "many rewards both by the Greek- 
ish and the German Emperor." 

Five years later, in 1107, a "very great warlike fleet 
of the Catholic nation of England to the number of 
about seven thousand," together with "more men of 
war of the kingdom of Denmark, of Flanders, and of 
Antwerp," set sail in ships then called "busses" — small 
vessels carrying two masts, and with two cabins, one at 
each end — for the Holy Land. This body of warring 
zealots reached Joppa after a prosperous voyage, and 
thence, under a strong guard provided them by King 
Baldwin, passed to Jerusalem safely from all assaults 
and ambushes of the Gentiles. When they had sol- 
emnly offered up their vows in the Temple of the Holy 
Sepulchre, they returned with great joy to Joppa, and 
were ready to fight for Baldwin in any venture he might 
propose against the enemy. Plans were formed to 
besiege a stronghold. But the move ended with an effec- 
tive demonstration of the fleet in brave array, display- 
ing "pendants and streams of purple and diverse other 
glorious colours, and flags of scarlet colour and silk." 

Near the end of this century, in 1190, came the "wor- 
thy voyage of Richard the first, king of England, into 
Asia for the recovery of Jerusalem out of the hands 
of the Saracens," with which began the Third Crusade 
of the nine of history. This was that Richard, of 
restless zeal, surnamed "Ceur de Lion," Henry the 



The Early Voyages 47 

second's son. After Henry's death Richard, "remem- 
bering the rebellions that he had undutifully raised" 
against his father, "sought for absolution of his tres- 
pass." And "in part of satisfaction for the same," 
he agreed to make this crusade with Philip, the French 
king. Accordingly so soon as he was crowned he began 
his preparations. The first business was to raise a 
comfortable sum of money for the expedition. It was 
promptly accomplished by exacting "a tenth of the 
whole Realm, the Christians to make threescore and 
ten thousand pounds, and the Jews which then dwelt 
in the Realm threescore thousand." At length his 
fleet was afloat, and he was off" to join Philip of France. 
This Crusade occupied the first four years of Richard's 
reign, and during it he made the conquest of Cyprus, 
won a great victory at Jaffa, marched on Jerusalem, 
concluded a truce with the sultan, Saladin, and slaugh- 
tered three thousand hostages when Saladin failed to 
come to time with an agreed-upon payment of two 
hundred thousand pieces of gold. The butchery of 
the hostages was performed on the summit of a hill 
that the tragedy might be in full view of Saladin's 
camp. On his homeward journey he was shipwrecked, 
and he was long imprisoned in Germany. Hakluyt's 
version of this Crusade is a detailed account "drawn 
out of the Book of Actes and Monuments of the Church 
of England written by M. John Foxe," more popularly 
known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Richard's code of 
laws and ordinances for the government of his crusad- 
ing fleet, well illustrates at once the rigour of the dis- 



48 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

cipline and the character of the British sailor of that 
day. It also discloses the antiquity of the method of 
punishment by tar-and-feathering: 

"1. That who so killed any person on shipboord 
should be tied with him that was slaine and throwen 
into the sea. 

"2. And if he killed him on the land, he should in 
like maner be tied with the partie slaine, and be buried 
with him in the earth. 

"3. He that shalbe convicted by lawfull witnes to 
draw out his knife or weapon to the intent to strike any 
man, or that hath striken any to the drawing of blood 
shall loose his hand. 

■"4. Also he that striketh any person with his hand 
without effusion of blood, shall be plunged three times 
in the sea. 

"5. Item, who so speaketh any opprobrious or con- 
tumelious wordes in reviling or cursing one another, 
for so oftentimes as he hath reviled shall pay so many 
ounces of silver. 

"6. Item, a thiefe or felon that hath stollen being 
lawfully convicted, shal have his head shorne and 
boyling pitch powred upon his head, and feathers or 
downe strawed upon the same, whereby he may be 
knowen, and so at the first landing place they shall 
come to, there to be cast up." 

In the Crusades of the thirteenth century we have 
notes on the expeditions of the "Knights of Jerusalem" 
against the Saracens: in brief recitals of the voyages of 
Ranulph, earl of Chester, sent out by Henry the third 



The Early Voyages 49 

in 1218, with "Saer de Quincy, earl of Winchester, 
William de Albanie, earl of Arundel, besides divers 
barons," and "a goodly company of soldiers and men 
at arms"; and of Richard, earl of Cornwall, Henry 
the third's brother (and afterward king of the Romans), 
accompanied by William Longespee, earl of "Saris- 
burie" (Salisbury) and other nobles "for their valiancy 
greatly renowned," and " a great number of Christian 
soldiers," in 1240, beginning the Seventh Crusade. In 
1248 Longespee — or Longsword, as his fellow-knights 
called him for his prowess — made a second voyage and 
lost his life in a battle with the Saracens. Finally, in 
1270, Henry the third's son, Prince Edward, and other 
young nobles, having "taken upon them the cross," at 
the hand of the Pope's legate then in England, "to the 
relief of the Holy Land and the subversion of the ene- 
mies of Christ," sailed out with a gallant war fleet. 
They landed at Acre, and thence the prince, with an 
army of six or seven thousand soldiers, marched upon 
Nazareth. This he took, and "those that he found 
there he slew." Other victories followed with much 
slaughter of Saracens. At length the triumphant 
prince fell ill at Acre, and during his sickness a plot 
was concocted by the emir of Joppa to remove him by 
assassination. This failed, the prince thwarting the 
scheme by himself killing the emir's messenger just as 
the treacherous dagger was to be thrust into his bosom. 
Shortly after he concluded a peace for ten years and 
returned to England, to be crowned kmg upon his 
father's death. 



50 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Edward's was the last exploit of Englishmen in the 
Crusades, and it closed the last one. Attempts were 
made at subsequent periods to revive the flame, but 
these resulted only in flares of short duration. A 
shining one for a moment was kindled by King Henry 
the fourth in 1413. It flashed out with his sudden 
death at Westminster while the ships and galleys for 
the proposed voyage were building. 

At this time the competition for trade advantages in 
the east and northeast were becoming of larger import 
to England. A half-century earlier, in 1360, in Ed- 
ward the third's reign, a Franciscan friar, mathema- 
tician, and astronomer, Nicholas de Linna, of Oxford, 
had made a voyage into the north parts, "all the re- 
gions situated under the North-pole," had taken valua- 
ble observations, and had reported his discoveries to 
Edward with a description of the northern islands. In 
1390 Henry, earl of Derby, afterward King Henry the 
fourth, made a voyage into Prussia; and the next year 
the duke of Gloucester, Edward the third's youngest 
son, also penetrated Prussia. As early as 1344 the 
island of Madeira had been discovered by an English- 
man, and sometime occupied. The latter, however, 
was not a commercial discovery, but a romantic one, 
and England at the time, and for long after, was not 
aware of it. Hakluyt takes the story from a Portu- 
guese history. It was regarded by most later his- 
torians as apocryphal, but its genuineness has been 
finally demonstrated through the historical researches of 
the English geographer, R. H. Major. It runs in this 



The Early Voyages 51 

wise. The discoverer was one Robert Macham, when 
fleeing from England to France with his stolen bride, 
Anna d'Arfet. His ship was tempest-tossed out of its 
course and cast toward this island. He anchored in a 
haven (which years afterward was named Macham in 
memory of him) and landed on the island with his lady 
and the ship's company. Soon with a fair wind the 
ship and part of the company "made sail away." 
After a while the young woman died "from thought," 
perhaps homesickness; and Macham built a tomb for 
her upon which he inscribed their names, and "the 
occasion of their arrival there." Then he ordered a 
boat made of a single great tree, and when it was done, 
he put to sea with his few companions that were left. 
At length they came upon the coast of Afrike (Africa) 
without sail or oar. "And the Moors which saw it 
took it to be a marvellous thing and presented him 
unto the king of that country for a wonder, and that 
king also sent him and his companions for a miracle 
unto the king of Spain." 

With the opening of the fifteenth century, Portugal 
was pressing forward for a share with the maritime 
states of Italy, Genoa, and Venice in the rich eastern 
traffic. In 1410 Prince Henry, "the Navigator," had 
begun his systematic explorations. A younger son of 
the Portuguese king John the first, and a grandson of 
Edward the third of England, born at the close of the 
fourteenth century (in 1394), after gaining renown as a 
soldier, he turned to loftier aims and became one of the 
first astronomers, mathematicians, cartographers, and 



52 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

directors of maritime discoveries in his time. He was 
the first to conceive the idea of cutting a way out 
through the unexplored ocean. His superb genius 
gave the inspiration to marvellous results in the dis- 
covery of more than half the globe within the cycle of 
a century. At the age of twenty-four the hope was 
born in him of reaching India by the south point of 
Africa, and thereafter to this end his speculations and 
studies were ardently directed. The earliest expedi- 
tions sent out by him failed of results, and his theories 
were ridiculed by his fellow-nobles. At length, how- 
ever, in 1419 and 1420, the Madeira Islands, Porto 
Santo and Madeira, were rediscovered by his navi- 
gators. A little more than a decade later, in 1433, 
they had rounded Cape Bojador. In 1435 tne prince's 
cup-bearer had passed beyond that cape. In 1443 an ~ 
other of his navigators had sailed beyond Cape Blanco. 
The next year Pope Martin the fifth, by a Papal 
Bull, declared Portugal in possession of all the lands 
her mariners had visited as far as the Indies. In 1445 
the mouth of the Senegal and afterward Cape Verde 
were reached. Prince Henry died in 1460, but the 
work he had begun continued, after a temporary check, 
to be carried forward. In 1469 Portuguese trade was 
opened with the Gold Coast. In 1484 the mouth of 
the Congo was discovered. In i486 Bartholomew Dias 
doubled the Cape of Good Hope. 

Meanwhile these wondrous advances of Portugal 
were stimulating other maritime nations to the quest 
for new passages to India. 



V 

QUEST FOR THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 

PORTUGAL now had practically a monopoly of 
the traffic with the Orient, and the finding of new 
paths to India by her maritime rivals was essential 
in the struggle for commercial supremacy. A passage 
by way of "Cathay" had the most powerful attractions. 
"Great Cathay," the marvellous empire of the remote 
East, whence travellers had brought wonderful tales in 
the latter Middle Ages, had become the ultimate goal of 
adventurous voyages. The hazy region was the "ex- 
tremity of the habitable world" of the ancients. Early 
Christian fancy had identified within it the Earthly 
Paradise, the seat of the old "Garden of Eden," beyond 
the Ocean stream, "raised so high on a triple terrace 
of mountain that the deluge did not touch it." Under 
the name of Cathay the strange empire had been 
opened to the speculation of mediaeval Europe in 
the thirteenth century, with the vast conquest of the 
Mongol Genghis Khan, reckoned in history one of 
the greatest conquerors the world has ever seen. 

Two Franciscan friars — John de Piano Carpini and 

53 



54 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

William of Rubruk (Rubruquis) in French Flanders, 
who reached the court in Mongolia, the former in 1245 or 
1246, the latter in 1247 or I2 53 — appear to have been 
the first Europeans to approach its borders. They saw 
the Cathayans in the bazaars of their Great Khan's 
camps, and brought back to Europe the first accounts 
of the people and of the wonderful things seen, pre- 
sented in their journals of their adventures. Both of 
these "rare jewels," as he appreciatively terms them, 
Hakluyt found at London in manuscripts while delving 
in Lord Lumley's library, and he printed them in full 
in the second edition of the Principal Navigations. 
After the friars two Venetians penetrated the empire, 
the first European travellers to visit Cathay itself. 
These were the brothers Nicolo and MafFei Polo, 
members of a noble trading family of Venice. They 
were there for a short time in or about the year 1269. 
Soon afterward they made a second visit, when Marco, 
the son of Nicolo, then a youth of seventeen, quick- 
witted, open-eyed, and observant, accompanied them. 
This visit extended through more than twenty years, 
the three Venetians basking in the sunshine of the 
Great Khan's favour. The elders helped the Khan 
with suggestions for the profitable application of the 
knowledge of the West which they opened to him, 
while Marco's cleverness was variously employed in 
his service; sometimes as a commissioner attached to 
the Imperial council, at others on distant missions, 
and at one period a governor of a great city. Marco's 
recollections, given to the world long after the final 



Quest for the Northwest Passage 55 

return of the Polos to Venice, first made the name of 
Cathay familiar to Europe. These recollections were 
taken down from his lips by one Rusticiano of Pisa, a 
clever literary hack, who was shut up in prison with him 
for a year (the two having been among the captives 
taken by the Genoese in a sea-fight with the Venetians 
in 1298), and formed the basis of the book of marvel- 
lous adventures, subsequently published in various 
languages and varying texts, which came to be famous 
as the Voyages and Travels of Marco Polo. From this 
Hakluyt also gives copious extracts. 

Commercial intercourse of adventuresome European 
traders began with the region in the early fourteenth 
century, and continued fairly to flourish for about fifty 
years. Then, with changes in dynasties and tribal 
wars, the ways of approach were closed and it fell again 
into darkness. It was long supposed to be a separate 
country, distinct from the Indies, lying to the north of 
what we now know as China, and stretching to the 
Arctic sea. It was not until 1603 (after the publication 
of the final volume of the Principal Navigations) that 
it was found to be identical with the then vaguely known 
empire of China, of which similar marvels had for 
some time been recited. Its identity was the discovery 
by a lay Jesuit, Benedict Goes, sent out through Cen- 
tral Asia by his superiors in India for the specific 
object of determining whether Cathay and China were 
or were not separate empires. Goes died upon the 
completion of his mission, at Suhchow, the frontier 
city of China. 



56 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Cathay was the aim of Columbus. He was possessed 
by the conviction that the fabled riches of this won- 
drous region lay directly across the trackless Atlantic 
"over against" the coast of Spain. Believing the 
world to be a sphere, he conceived his design of reach- 
ing Asia by sailing west. This was the project that 
he carried for weary years from court to court, seeking 
the patronage of a favouring prince. 

But for a mischance England, instead of Spain, 
would have had the glory and the advantage of his 
first discovery of 1492. Hakluyt recalls the circum- 
stances in these two "testimonies": 



(1) 



"The offer of the discovery of the West Indies 
by Christopher Columbus to king Henry the 
seventh in theyeere 1488 the 13 of February: with 
the kings acceptation of the offer, & the cause 
whereupon he was deprived of the same: recorded 
in the thirteenth chapter of the history of Don 
Fernand Columbus of the life and deeds of his 
father Christopher Columbus. 

"Christopher Columbus fearing least if the king of 
Castile in like maner (as the king of Portugall had 
done) should not condescend unto his enterprise, he 
should be enforced to offer the same againe to some 
other prince, & so much time should be spent therein, 
sent into England a certaine brother of his which he 



Quest for the Northwest Passage 57 

had with him, whose name was Bartholomew Colum- 
bus, who albeit he had not the Latine tongue, yet 
neverthelesse was a man of experience .and skilfull in 
Sea causes, and could very wel make sea cards & 
globes and other instruments belonging to that profes- 
sion, as he was instructed by his brother. Wherefore 
after that Bartholomew Columbus was departed for 
England his lucke was to fall into the hands of pirats, 
which spoiled him with the rest of them which were in 
the ship which he went in. Upon w T hich occasion, and 
by reason of his poverty and sicknesse which cruelly 
assaulted him in a countrey so farre distant from his 
friends, he deferred his ambassage for a long while, 
untill such time as he had gotten somewhat handsome 
about him with making of Sea cards. At length he 
began to deale with king Henry the seventh the father 
of Henry the eight which reigneth at this present: unto 
whom he presented a mappe of the world, wherein 
these verses were written, which I found among his 
papers: and I will here set them downe rather for 
their antiquity than for their goodnesse: 

"'Thou which desirest easily the coasts of lands to know, 
This comely mappe right learnedly the same to thee will 

shew: 
Which Strabo, Plinie, Ptolomew and Isodore maintaine: 
Yet for all that they do not all in one accord remaine. 
Here also to set downe the late discovered burning Zone 
By Portingals unto the world which whilon was unknowen, 
Whereof the knowledge now at length thorow all the world 

is blowen.' 



58 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 
"And a little under he added: 

"'For the Authour or the Drawer. 

"'He, whose deare native soile bright stately Genua, 

Even he whose name is Bartholomew Colon de Terra 

Rubra 
The year of Grace a thousand and four hundred and four- 
score 
And eight, and on the thirteenth day of February more, 
In London published this worke. To Christ all laud 
therefore.' 

"And because some peradventure may observe that 
he calleth himselfe Columbus de Terra Rubra, I 
say, that in like maner I have seene some subscrip- 
tions of my father Christopher Columbus, before he 
had the degree of Admirall, wherein he signed his 
name thus, Columbus de Terra Rubra. But to re- 
name to the king of England, I say, that after he had 
seen the map, and that which my father Christo- 
pher Columbus offered unto him, he accepted the 
offer with joy full countenance, and sent to call him 
into England. But because God had reserved the sayd 
offer for Castile, Columbus was gone in the meane 
space, and also returned with the performance of his 
enterprise, as hereafter in order shall be rehearsed. 
Now will I leave off from making any farther 
mention of that which Bartholomew Colon had 
negotiated in England, and I will return unto the 
Admirall, &c." 



Quest for the Northwest Passage 59 

(2) 

"Another testimony taken out of the 60 chapter 
of the aforesayd history of Ferdinando Colum- 
bus, concerning the offer that Bartholemew 
Columbus made to King Henry the seventh on 
the behalfe of his brother Christopher. 

"Christopher Columbus the Admirall being returned 
from the discovery of Cuba and Jamayca, found in 
Hispaniola his brother Bartholomew Columbus, who 
before had beene sent to intreat of an agreement with 
the king of England for the discovery of the Indies, as 
we have sayd before. This Bartholomew therefore 
returning unto Castile, with the capitulations granted 
by the king of England to his brother, understood at 
Paris by Charles the king of France, that the Admirall 
his brother had already performed that discovery; 
whereupon the French king gave unto the sayd Bar- 
tholemew an hundred French crownes to beare his 
charges into Spaine. And albeit he made great haste 
upon this good newes to meet with the Admirall in 
Spaine, yet at his comming to Sevil his brother was 
already returned to the Indies with seventeene saile of 
shipps. Wherefore to fulfill that which he had left him 
in charge in the beginning of the yeere 1494 he repaired 
to the Catholike princes, taking with him Diego Colon 
my brother, and me also, which were to be preferred 
as Pages to the most excellent Prince Don John, who 
now is with God, according to the commandment of 
the Catholike Queene Lady Isabell, which was then in 



60 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Validolid. Assoone therefore as we came to the Court, 
the princes called for Don Bartholomew, and sent him 
to Hispaniola with three ships, &c." 

The news of Columbus' achievement filled all 
Europe with wonder and admiration. To "sail by the 
West into the East where spices grow by a way that 
was never known before" was affirmed "a thing more 
divine than human." Offering the promise of a direct 
route to Cathay, the feat was of tremendous import. 
There was especially "great-talk of it" in the English 
court with keen regret that England, through untoward 
happenings, had failed of the honour and profit of the 
momentous discovery, and Henry and his counsellors 
were eager to emulate Spain. Although the full sig- 
nificance of the discovery was not then realized — that 
the new-found islands were the barriers of a new 
continent — no underestimate of the value of the region 
was made by either nation. Ferdinand and Isabella 
gave it the name of the Indies, considering it, with the 
discoverer, to be a part of India, and no time was lost 
in clinching their rights. Nor were "their Catholic 
highnesses" idle. In May, 1493, P°P e Alexander the 
sixth granted his bull fixing a "line of demarcation" 
between the Spanish and Portuguese possessions, which 
was nothing less than a division of the world between 
Spain and Portugal. This line was run from pole to 
pole and one hundred degrees west of the Azores, and 
all newly discovered and to be discovered lands on the 
east of the line were assigned to the absolute possession 
of the crown of Portugal, those on the west to the 



Quest for the Northwest Passage 61 

crown of Castile. In 1494 Columbus made his second 
voyage and discovered, among other islands, Porto 
Rico and Jamaica. 

Meanwhile in the English maritime city of Bristol 
the Venetian merchant, John Cabot (or Zuan Caboto 
in the Venetian dialect), then resident there, had per- 
fected his scheme of shortening the way to India by the 
Northwest Passage, and in 1496, before Columbus's 
return from his second voyage, it had been proposed to 
King Henry, had met his hearty approbation, had been 
endorsed by his letters patent issued to Cabot and 
Cabot's three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Santius, and 
preparations for the venture had begun. 



VI 

THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 

HENRY'S patent, bearing date March 5, 1495/6, 
and distinguished as "the most ancient Amer- 
ican state paper of England," gave to the 
grantees sweeping powers and a pretty complete com- 
mercial monopoly. They were authorized to sail in 
all seas to the East, the West, and the North; to seek 
out in any part of the undiscovered world islands, 
countries, and provinces of the heathen hitherto un- 
known to Christians; affix the ensigns of England to 
all places newly found and take possession of them for 
the English crown. They were to have the exclusive 
right of frequenting the places of their discovery, and 
enjoy all the fruits and gains of their navigations except 
a fifth part, which was to go to the king. The sole 
restriction imposed was that on their* return voyages 
they should always land at the port of Bristol. With 
these generous concessions, however, the canny king 
stipulated that the enterprise should be wholly at the 
Cabots' "own proper costs and charges." 

Hakluyt reproduces the text of this precious docu- 

62 



The Voyages of the Cabots 63 

ment in the first volume of the Principal Navigations. 
It runs as follows: 

"Henry by the grace of God, King of England and 
France, and lord of Ireland, to all to whom these 
presents shall come, Greeting. 

" Be it knowen that we have given and granted, and 
by these presents do give and grant for us and our 
heires, to our welbeloved John Cabot citizen of Venice, 
to Lewis, Sebastian, and Santius, sonnes of the sayd 
John, and to the heires of them, and every of them, 
and their deputies, full and free authority, leave and 
power to saile to all parts, countreys, and seas of the 
East, of the West, and of the North, under our banners 
and ensignes, with five ships of what burthen or quan- 
tity soever they be, and as many mariners or men as 
they will have with them in the sayd ships, upon their 
owne proper costs and charges, to seeke out, discover, 
and finde whatsoever isles, countreys, regions or prov- 
inces of the heathen and infidels whatsoever they be, 
and in what part of the world soever they be, which 
before this time have bene unknowen to all Christians: 
we have granted to them, and also to every of them, 
the heires of them, and every of them, and their depu- 
ties, and have given this license to set up our banners 
and ensignes in every village, towne, castle, isle, or 
mainland of them newly found. And that the afore- 
sayd John and his sonnes, or their heires and assignes 
may subdue, occupy, and possesse all such townes, 
cities, castles and isles of them found, which they can 
subdue, occupy, and possesse, as our vassals, and 



64 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

lieutenants, getting unto us the rule, title, and juris- 
diction of the same villages, townes, castles, & firme 
land so found. 

"Yet so that the aforesayd John, and his sonnes and 
heires, and their deputies, be holden and bounden of 
all the fruits, profits, gaines, and commodities growing 
of such navigation, for every their voyages as often as 
they shall arrive at our port of Bristoll (at the which port 
they shall be bound and holden onely to arrive) all 
maner of necessary costs and charges by them made, 
being deducted, to pay unto us in wares or money the 
fift part of the capitall gaine so gotten. We giving and 
granting unto them and to their heires and deputies, 
that they shall be free from all paying of customes of all 
and singular such merchandize as they shall bring 
with them from those places so newly found. And 
moreover, we have given and granted to them, their 
heires and deputies, that all the firme lands, isles, 
villages, townes, castles and places whatsoever they be 
that they shall chance to finde, nay not of any other 
of our subjects be frequented or visited without the 
license of the foresayd John and his sonnes, and their 
deputies, under paine of forfeiture aswell of their 
shippes as of all and singuler goods of all them that 
shall presume to saile to those places so found. Will- 
ing, and most straightly commanding all and singuler 
our subjects aswell on land as on sea, to give good 
assistance to the aforesayd John and his sonnes and 
deputies, and that as well in arming and furnishing 
their ships or vessels, as in provision of food, and in 



The Voyages of the Cabots 65 

buying of victuals for their money, and all other things 
by them to be provided necessary for the sayd naviga- 
tion, they do give them all their helpe and favour. 

"In witnesse whereof we have caused to be made 
these our Letters patents. Witnesse our selfe at West- 
minster the fift day of March, in the eleventh yeare of 
our reigne." 

Under this patent, the following year — 1497 — John 
Cabot sailed out of Bristol with one small vessel, and 
supplemented the discovery of Columbus in finding the 
mainland of America. 

John Cabot, like Columbus, was a Genoese, but 
neither the exact place nor the date of his birth is 
known. He was in Venice as early as 146 1, as ap- 
pears from a record in the Venetian archives of his 
naturalization as a citizen of Venice under date of 
March 28, 1476, after the prescribed residence of 
fifteen years. There he was apparently a merchant. 
It is said that he also made voyages at times as a ship- 
master. He became proficient in the study of cosmog- 
raphy and in the science of navigation. With Colum- 
bus he accepted the theory of the rotundity of the 
earth, and is said to have been early desirous of himself 
putting it to a practical test. At one time he visited 
Arabia, where at Mecca he saw the caravans coming in 
laden with spices from distant countries. Asking where 
the spices grew, he was told by the carriers that they 
did not know; that other caravans came to their homes 
with this rich merchandise from more distant parts, 
and that these others told them that it was brought 



66 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

from still more remote regions. So he came to reason 
in this wise: that "if the Orientals affirmed to the 
Southerners that those things come from a distance 
from them, and so from hand to hand, presupposing 
the rotundity of the earth, it must be that the last ones 
get them at the North toward the West." On this 
argument he later based his Northwest Passage scheme. 
He moved to England probably not long before the 
development of this scheme (some early writers, how- 
ever, place the date about the year 1477), and took up 
his residence in Bristol, to "follow the trade of mer- 
chandise." His wife, a Venetian, and his three sons, 
all supposed to have been born in Venice, accompanied 
him. Sebastian, the second son, who became the most 
illustrious of the family, was then a youth, but suffi- 
ciently old to have already some "knowledge of the 
humanities and the sphere," as he long afterward 
stated. The brothers, it is supposed, were all of age 
when the king's patent was issued, and Sebastian 
about twenty-three. 

John Cabot's expedition sailed early in May and was 
absent three months. It was essentially a voyage of 
discovery. His vessel was a Bristol ship, and called 
the "Matthew." The ship's company comprised 
eighteen persons, "almost all Englishmen and from 
Bristol." The foreigners were a Burgundian and a 
Genoese. Sebastian, it is believed, accompanied his 
father, but neither of the other sons. The chief men 
of the enterprise were "great sailors." 

The brave little ship plowed the mysterious sea for 



The Voyages of the Cabots 67 

seven hundred leagues, as estimated, when on the 
twenty-fourth of June, in the morning, land was sighted. 
This was supposed by the early historians, and so set 
down in their histories, to have been the island of New- 
foundland. But through nineteenth century findings 
of data it has been made clear that it was the north 
part, or the eastern point of the present island of Cape 
Breton, ofF the coast of Nova Scotia. This is demon- 
strated by the inscription "prima tierra vista" at the 
head of the delineation of that island, on a map attrib- 
uted to Sebastian Cabot composed in 1544, nearly 
half a century after the voyage, and subsequently 
missing till the discovery of a copy three centuries 
later, in 1843, in Germany, at the house of a Bavarian 
curate, whence it passed to the National Library at 
Paris. On this map Cape Breton island forms a part 
of the mainland of Nova Scotia, the Gut of Canso not 
then having been discovered. On the same day that 
the landfall was made a "large island adjacent" to it 
was discovered, and named St. John because of its 
finding on the day of the festival of St. John the Bap- 
tist. It is marked the "I del Juan" on this map, and 
is the present Prince Edward Island. 

A landing was made at the landfall and Cabot 
planted a large cross with "one flag of England, and 
one of St. Mark by reason of his being a Venetian," and 
took possession for the English king. No human 
beings were seen, but "certain snares set to catch 
game, and a needle for making nets," showing that the 
place was inhabited, were found and taken to be dis- 



68 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 



played to the king upon the return home. In one con- 
temporary account, a letter of another Venetian mer- 
chant in England, Lorenzo Pasqualigo, written from 
London to his brothers in Venice, Cabot is said to have 
coasted, after striking land, for three hundred leagues, 
and to have seen "two islands at starboard." Accept- 
ing this statement as authentic, with other data subse- 
quently found, his course from his "Prima Vista" has 
been traced by later historical authorities in this wise: 
northwesterly, to obtain a good view of his Isle of St. 
John; northerly, through the present Northumberland 
Strait, sighting the coast of New Brunswick near Mira- 
michi Bay; along the Gulf of St. Lawrence; north- 
easterly, passing to the north of Newfoundland through 
the Strait of Belle Isle, between Newfoundland and 
Labrador; and thence homeward. It is well indicated 
on the accompanying sketch-map originally published 
in connection with a paper contributed to the Maine 
Historical Society by Frederick Kidder, a competent 
authority, in 1874. 

Cabot believed that the lands he had discovered lay 
in "the territory of the Grand Cham," as Columbus 
thought his were of eastern Asia. 

The expedition arrived back at Bristol early in 
August and the story it brought created a sensation. 
With his report to the king Cabot exhibited a map of 
the region visited and a solid globe, and presented the 
game-snares and net-needle which he had found. He 
told the king that he believed it practicable by starting 
from the parts which he had discovered, and constantly 



The Voyages of the Cabots 



69 



hugging the shore toward the equinoctial, to reach an 
island called by him Cipango, where he thought all the 
spices of the world and also the precious stones origi- 
nated; and this region found and colonized, there 



— 46- "' 




610 




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Kidder's sketch-map of John Cabot's voyage in 1497. 

might be established in London a greater storehouse 
of spices than the chief one then existing, in Alexandria. 
All this much moved the king, and he promised to pro- 
mote a second expedition for this purpose in the fol- 
lowing spring. 

Meanwhile John Cabot became the hero of the hour, 



yo Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 



and great honours were paid him. The king gave him 
money and granted him an annual pension of twenty 
pounds (equal to two hundred modern pounds in pur- 
chasing value), which was to be charged upon the 
revenues of the port of Bristol; he dressed in silk; 
and he was styled the "Great Admiral." He also 
appears to have been knighted. He distributed largess 
with a free hand, if the tales of the letter-writers of the 
day are to be accepted. One wrote that he gave an 
island to the Burgundian of his crew and another to 
the Genoese, "a barber of his from Castiglione, of 
Genoa." And this writer adds, "both of them regard 
themselves counts." Reports of his exploits and of 
the king's further intentions were duly made known to 
rival courts by their envoys in England, and excited 
their jealousy. 

The second expedition was provided for by the king's 
license dated the third of February, 1497/8. This was 
a patent granted to John Cabot alone, the sons not 
being named. Hakluyt gives only the following record 
from the rolls: 

"The king upon the third day of February, in the 
13 yeere of his reigne, gave license to John Cabot to 
take sixe English ships in any haven or havens of the 
realme of England, being of the burden of 200 tunnes, 
or under, with all necessary furniture, and to take also 
into the said ships all such masters, manners, and sub- 
jects of the king as willingly will go with him, &c." 

The patent itself did not find print till the nineteenth 
century. It was published for the first time in 1831, 



The Voyages of the Cabots 71 

in the Memoirs of Sebastian Cabot, by Richard Biddle, 
an American lawyer of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, some- 
time resident in London, by whom, after painstaking 
search, it was found in the rolls. Quaint of style as 
well as of spelling, it runs as below: 

"To all men to whom theis Presenteis shall come 
send Gretyng: know ye, that We of our Grace es- 
peciall, and for divers causes us movying We have 
geven and graunten, and by theis Presentis geve and 
graunte to our welbeloved John Kabotto, Venecian, 
sufficiente auctorite and power, that he, by him his 
Deputie or Deputies sufficient, may take at his pleasure 
VI Englisshe Shippes in any Porte or Portes or other 
place within this our Realme of England or obeisance, 
so that and if said Shippes be of the bourdeyn of C C 
tonnes or under with their apparail requisite and 
necessarie for the safe conduct of the said Shippes, and 
them convey and lede to the Londe [land] Isles of late 
founde by the seid John in oure name and by our 
commaundemente. Paying for theym and every of 
theym as if we should in or for our owen cause paye 
and noon [none] otherwise. An that the said John by 
him his Deputie or Deputies sufficiente, maye take 
and receyve into the said Shippes, and every of theym 
all such maisters, maryners, Pages, and other subjects 
of their owen free wille woll goo [would go] and passe 
with him in the same Shippes to the said Lande or 
lies, without anye impedymente, lett or perturbance 
of any of our officers or ministres or subjects whatsoever 
they be by theym to the sayd John, his Deputie, or 



72 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery- 
Deputies, and all other our seid subjects, or any of 
theym passinge with the sayd John in the said Shippes 
to the said Londe or lies to be doon, or suffer to be 
doon or attempted. Geving in commaundemente to 
all and every our officers, ministres and subjects seying 
or herying theis our Lettres Patents, without any 
ferther commaudement by Us to theym or any of 
theym to be geven to perfourme and secour the said 
John, his Deputie and all our said Subjects so passyng 
with hym according to the tenor of theis our Lettres 
Patentis. Any Statute, Acte, or Ordennance to the 
contrarye made or to be made in any wise notwith- 
standing." 

Five ships were got together for this expedition. 
Three of them are supposed to have been furnished by 
Bristol merchants and two by the king; one chron- 
icler, however, says that the Cabots contributed two. 
London merchants joined with Bristol men in the 
adventure. It was understood to be an enterprise for 
colonization combined with further discovery. The 
number of men enlisted for the voyage was placed at 
three hundred. Among them, as on the first voyage, 
were mariners experienced in venturesome undertak- 
ings. The fleet sailed off at the beginning of May, 
1498. One of the ships, aboard of which was the priest, 
"Friar Buel," put back to Ireland in distress. The 
other four continued the voyage. 

With the departure from Bristol nothing more is 
heard of John Cabot. He drops out of sight instantly 
and mysteriously. Various conjectures as to his fate 



The Voyages of the Cabots 73 

are entertained by the historians. Some contend that 
he died when about to set sail. But confronting this 
theory is a letter of the prothonotary, Don Pedro de 
Ayala, residing in London, to Ferdinand and Isabella, 
under date of July 25, 1498, reporting the sailing of the 
expedition. "His [the king's] fleet consisted of five 
vessels which carried provisions for one year. It is 
said that one of them . . . has returned to Ireland in 
great distress, the ship being much damaged. The 
Genoese [John Cabot, as appears in the text elsewhere] 
has continued the voyage." If so important a man as 
John Cabot had now become had died before May and 
the departure of the expedition of which he was the 
acknowledged head, it is fairly reasoned that Ayala 
would have been aware of it. No shred of satisfactory 
information has rewarded the searcher for a solution 
of the problem. Nobody knows what became of him. 

At this point Sebastian Cabot enters upon the scene 
in the leading part. That he started with the expedition 
there is no doubt. Doubtless he succeeded to its 
leadership as the "Deputie" of his father in accord- 
ance with the terms of the patent. The conduct of it 
and the discoveries that followed, big in import, were 
his from the outset. 

Sebastian Cabot, though not over twenty-four, was 
an experienced mariner, and accomplished, like his 
father, in the science of navigation. He was full of 
ardour to achieve distinction as a discoverer. The 
news of Columbus's exploits had kindled in his heart 
"a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing." 



74 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

As the master spirit of this second Cabot expedition 
and with its results his heart's desire was splendidly 
attained; although the expedition was counted a 
failure by its backers, and the value of its discoveries 
to England was lost to the now indifferent king. 

No contemporary account of this remarkable voyage 
was published, and historians have founded their 
descriptions of it mainly on reports of a much later 
period, derived from conversations with Sebastian 
Cabot at first, second, or third hand. These reports 
are contradictory in essential parts, and their authors 
confuse this second with the first expedition or treat 
the two as one voyage. Its story, as most satisfactorily 
picked out, runs practically in this wise: Sebastian 
steered first northwest and directed his course by Ice- 
land. At length he came upon a formidable headland 
running to the north. This coast he followed for a 
great distance, expecting to find the passage to Cathay 
around it. In the month of July his ships were en- 
countering "monstrous heaps" of ice floating in the 
water, and daylight was almost continual. At length 
failing to find any passage the ships' prows were turned 
about and in course of time Newfoundland was reached, 
where the expedition sought refreshment. How far 
north Sebastian had penetrated it is impossible to deter- 
mine from the conflicting statements. He himself is 
quoted as saying, twenty years and more afterward, 
that he was at fifty-six degrees when compelled to turn 
back. But modern authorities find presumptive evi- 
dence that he discovered Hudson's Strait and gained 



The Voyages of the Cabots 75 

the sixty-seventh degree through Fox's Channel before 
he turned. From Newfoundland he sailed south, and 
coasted down along the North American coast, still 
hopeful of finding the much-sought-for passage, till, 
the company's provisions falling short, he was obliged 
to take the homeward course. The southernmost 
point reached is as indefinite as the northern, but 
authorities generally agree that it was near thirty-six 
degrees, off North Carolina, or about the latitude of 
Gibraltar. 

Cabot is declared by early writers to have named 
the "great land" along which he first coasted, assumed 
to be Newfoundland, " Baccaloas," a German term 
then in use in the south of Europe for codfish, because 
of the multitudes of "big fish" found in the region. 
Later authorities, however, say that this name was 
applied by Portuguese navigators who came after 
Cabot. The name subsequently settled down upon a 
small island on the east coast of Newfoundland. It 
seems to be agreed that landings were made by Cabot's 
company at several points. The natives, probably of 
Newfoundland, were seen dressed in beasts' skins, and 
they were found making use of copper. Great sailors' 
yarns were spun about the abundance of the fish of the 
region, so great that "the progress of the ships were 
sometimes impeded by them." Bears, of which there 
were a plenty, were accustomed to feed on the fish, 
plunging into the sea and catching them with their 
claws. 

Just when the expedition reached the home port of 



j6 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Bristol is not known. It was expected back in Sep- 
tember; it had not arrived in October. There is no 
printed record of its arrival. Not having been success- 
ful in finding the passage and reaching Cathay, it was 
regarded as a failure by its princely and mercantile 
backers. The king, too, was found to have lost his 
interest in western discovery or colonization. He was 
most deeply engrossed in domestic affairs. "Great 
tumults" were happening, "occasioned by the rising 
of the common people and the war in Scotland." 
Moreover, this Henry was now concerned in the pend- 
ing Spanish alliance and he was loath to run counter 
to the Pope's Bull of 1493. The geographical value 
of the Cabot discoveries was unappreciated, and no 
more talk was then heard of further western voyaging. 
Sebastian Cabot himself was not at that time aware 
that his father and he had discovered a continent. His 
opinion was that all of the north part of America was 
divided into islands. 



VII 

THE ENGLISH CLAIM TO AMERICA 

HAKLUYT reproduces the several conflicting 
accounts of the two Cabot voyages extant in 
his day and marshals them as the "testimo- 
nies" confirming the English claim to North America. 
They are thus summarized in his catalogue of contents 
of the Principal Navigations. 

"The first taken out of the mappe of Sebastian 
Cabota cut by Clement Adames; 

"the second used by Galeacius Butrigarius the 
Popes legate, and reported by him; 

"the third out of the preface of Baptista Ramusius 
[Giovanni Battista Ramusio] before his third volume of 
Navigations; 

" the 4. out of the thirde decade of Peter Martyr ab 
Angleria; 

"the 5. out of the general history of Lopez de Gomara 

"and the 6. out of Fabians Chronicle." 

The first "testimonie" is from a map which Hakluyt 
saw in the queen's privy gallery at Westminster, and of 
which copies were also to be seen in several country 
houses of "ancient merchants." It was attributed to 

77 



78 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery- 
Sebastian Cabot, but whether it was actually his has 
been a much discussed question by historical writers. 
Clement Adams was not an engraver but a learned 
schoolmaster. His "cut" was apparently an inscrip- 
tion from data furnished by Cabot. It was in Latin 
and is supposed to have been made in the year 1549. 
This is the extract as Hakluyt gives it: 

"In the yere of our Lord 1497 John Cabot a Vene- 
tian, and his sonne Sebastian (with an English fleet set 
out from Bristoll) discovered that land which no man 
before that time had attempted, on the 24 of June, 
about five of the clocke early in the morning. This 
land he called Prima vista, that is to say, First seene, 
because as I suppose it was that part whereof they had 
the first sight from sea. That Island which lieth out 
before the land, he called the Island of S. John upon 
this occasion, as I thinke, because it was discovered 
upon the day of John the Baptist. The inhabitants 
of this Island use to weare beasts skinnes, and have 
them in as great estimation as we have our finest gar- 
ments. In their warres they use bowes, arrowes, pikes, 
darts, woodden clubs, and slings. The soile is barren 
in some places, & yeeldeth litle fruit, but it is full of 
white beares and stagges farre greater then ours. It 
yeeldeth plenty of fish, and those very great, as seales, 
and those which commonly we call salmons: there are 
soles also above a yard in length: but especially there 
is great abundance of that kinde of fish which the 
Savages call baccalaos. In the same Island also there 
breed hauks, but they are so blacke that they are very 



The English Claim to America 79 

like to ravens, as also their partridges, and egles [eagles] 
which are in like sort blacke." 

Here is seen the first mixture of the two expeditions 
and the observations of their masters. 

The second "testimonie" is comprised in a report 
of a talk among a group of Italian savans at the villa 
of Hieronymo Fracastor, a maker of globes, at Caphi, 
near Verona. The principal speaker, "a most pro- 
found philosopher and mathematician," but not named, 
discoursed about Sebastian Cabot and related an inter- 
view had with Cabot some years before at Seville, in 
which he described his adventures in detail. The iden- 
tification of the speaker as "Galeacius Butrigarius, the 
Pope's legate" in Spain, was copied by Hakluyt, it is 
said, from Richard Eden. But this has been shown to 
have been an error, the fact being ascertained that But- 
rigarius died some years before the gathering afFra- 
castor's villa. Hakluyt reproduces the animated tale 
from Ramusio's second book of voyages, the caption 
being his own: 

"A discourse of Sebastain Cabot touching his 
discovery of part of the West India out of Eng- 
land in the time of King Henry the seventh, used to 
Galeacius Butrigarius the Popes Legate in Spaine, 
and reported by the sayd Legate in this sort. 

"Doe you not understand sayd he (speaking to 
certaine Gentlemen of Venice) how to passe to India 
toward the Northwest, as did of late a citizen of Venice, 
so valiant a man, and so well practised in all things per- 



80 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

taining to navigations, and the science of Cosmographie, 
that at this present he hath not his like in Spaine, in- 
somuch that for his vermes he is preferred above all 
other pilots that saile to the West Indies, who may not 
passe thither without his licence, and is therefore 
called Piloto mayor, that is, the grand Pilot. And 
when we sayd that we knew him not, he proceeded, 
saying, that being certaine yeres in the city of Sivil, 
and desirous to have some knowledge of the naviga- 
tions of the Spanyards, it was tolde him that there 
was in the city a valiant man, a Venetian borne named 
Sebastian Cabot, who had the charge of those things, 
being an expert man in that science, and one that coulde 
make Cardes [charts] for the Sea with his owne hand, 
and that by this report, seeking his acquaintance, hee 
found him a very gentle person, who entertained him 
friendly, and shewed him many things, and among 
other a large Mappe of the world, with certaine par- 
ticular Navigations, as well of the Portugals [Portu- 
guese] as of the Spaniards, and that he spake further 
unto him to this effect. 

"'When my father departed from Venice many 
yeres since to dwell in England, to follow the trade of 
marchandises, hee tooke mee with him to the citie of 
London, while I was very yong, yet having neverthe- 
lesse some knowledge of letters of humanitie and of 
the Sphere. And when my father died in that time 
when newes was brought that Don Christopher Colonus 
Genuese had discovered the coasts of India, whereof 
was great talke in all the Court of king Henry the 7. 



The English Claim to America 81 

who then raigned, insomuch that all men with great 
admiration affirmed it to be a thing more divine than 
humane, to saile by the West into the East where 
spices growe, by a way that was never knowen before, 
by this fame and report there increased in my heart a 
great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing. 
And understanding by reason of the Sphere, that if I 
should saile by way of the Northwest, I should by a 
shorter tract come into India, I thereupon caused the 
King to be advertised of my devise, who immediately 
commanded two Carvels to bee furnished with all 
things appertayning to the voyage, which was as farre 
as I remember in the yeere 1496 [sic] in the beginning 
of Sommer. 

"'I began therefore to saile toward the Northwest, 
not thinking to finde any other land then that of 
Cathay, & from thence to turne toward India, but 
after certaine dayes I found that the land ranne towards 
the North, which was to mee a great displeasure. 
Neverthelesse, sayling along by the coast to see if I 
could finde any gulfe that turned, I found the lande 
still continent to the 56. degree under our Pole. And 
seeing that there the coast turned toward the East, 
despairing to finde the passage, I turned backe againe, 
and sailed downe by the coast of that land toward the 
Equinoctiall (ever with intent to finde the saide passage 
to India) and came to that part of this firme lande 
which is nowe called Florida, where my victuals fail- 
ing, I departed from thence and returned into Eng- 
land, where I found great tumult among the people and 



82 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

preparation for warre in Scotland: by reason whereof 
there was no more consideration had to this voyage.' ''' 

Here again the two voyages are confused; and be- 
sides, the date, 1496, is wrong, and John Cabot is 
ignored. This would reflect upon the veracity and 
generosity of Sebastian Cabot, were it not more than 
likely that the reporter bungled, or that the accuracy 
of the statement suffered through repetition. It is 
also to be taken into account that the interview was 
had half a century after the events, and when Sebastian 
Cabot was an old man. 

The remainder of the interview touches briefly upon 
Sebastian Cabot's exploits of later years for Spain, and 
again, for England, and closes cheerily: "... And 
waxing olde, I give my selfe to rest from such travels, 
because there are nowe many yong and lustie Pilots 
and Mariners of good experience, by whose forward- 
nesse I doe rejoyce in the fruit of my labours, and rest 
with the charge of this office, as you see." 

The third testimony, from Ramusio's preface to his 
third volume, which was published in 1563, contrasts 
the Cabot voyages with those subsequently made for 
the king of France, which established "New France" 
in North America: 

"In the latter part of this volume are put certaine 
relations of John de Vararzana [Verrazzano], Floren- 
tine, and of a great captaine a Frenchman, and the 
two voyages of Jaques Cartier a Briton [of Brittany], 
who sailed unto the land situate in 50 degrees of latitude 
to the North, which is called New France, which 



The English Claim to America 83 

landes hitherto are not throughly knowen, whether 
they doo joyne with the firme land of Florida and Nova 
Hispania, or whether they bee separated and divided 
all by the Sea as Hands: and whether that by that way 
we may goe by Sea unto the countrey of Cathaia. As 
many yeeres past it was written unto mee by Sebastian 
Cabota our Countrey man, a Venetian, a man of great 
experience, and very rare in the art of Navigation, and 
the knowledge of Cosmographie, who sailed along and 
beyond this lande of New France, at the charges of 
King Henry the seventh king of England: and he 
advertised mee that having sailed a long time West by 
North, beyond those Hands unto the Latitude of 67 
degrees and an halfe under the North pole, and at the 
11 day of June finding still the open Sea without any 
maner of impediment, he thought verily by that way 
to have passed on still the way to Cathaia, which is in 
the East, and would have done it, if the mutinie of the 
shipmaster and Mariners had not hindered him and 
made him to returne homeward from that place. But 
it seemeth that God doeth yet still reserve this great 
enterprise for some great prince to discover this voyage 
of Cathaia by this way, which for the bringing of the 
Spiceries from India into Europe, were the most easie 
and shortest of all other wayes hitherto found out. 
And surely this enterprise would be the most glorious, 
and of most importance of all other that can be im- 
agined to make his name great, and fame immortall, to 
all ages to come, farre more then can be done by any 
of all these great troubles and warres which dayly 



84 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

are used in Europe among the miserable Christian 
people." 

The fourth testimony is the most important of the 
six, being an account by Peter Martyr drawn directly 
from Sebastian Cabot's statements to him. The Third 
Decade of Martyr's history of the New World, from 
which Hakluyt takes it, was first printed in Seville, in 
1516. At the time of Martyr's writing Sebastian Cabot 
was in Spain, in the Spanish king's service, and, as the 
text shows, an intimate friend of Martyr's. This being 
the first printed account of the Cabot voyages, American 
historians based their relations of them upon it till its 
several inaccuracies were disclosed by other data. 
Hakluyt presents it in full as below. 

"These North Seas have bene searched by one 
Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian borne, whom being yet 
but in maner an infant, his parents caried with them 
into England, having occasion to resort thither for 
trade of marchandise, as is the maner of the Venetians 
to leave no part of the world unsearched to obtaine 
riches. Hee therefore furnished two ships in England 
at his owne charges, and first with 300 men directed his 
course so far towards the North pole, that even in the 
moneth of July he found monstrous heapes of ice 
swimming on the sea, and in maner continuall day 
light, yet saw he the land in that tract free from ice, 
which had bene molten by the heat of the Sunne. 
Thus seeing such heapes of yce before him, hee was 
enforced to turne his sailes and follow the West, so 
coasting still to the shore, that he was thereby brought 



The English Claim to America 85 

so farre into the South, by reason of the land bending 
so much Southward, that it was there almost equall in 
latitude, with the sea Fretum Herculeum [Straits of 
Hercules], having the Northpole elevate in maner in 
the same degree. He sailed likewise in this tract so 
farre towards the West, that hee had the Island of 
Cuba on his left hand, in maner in the same degree of 
longitude. As hee traveiled by the coastes of this 
great land (which he named Baccalaos) he saith that 
hee found the like course of the waters toward the 
West, but the same to runne more softly and gently 
then the swift waters which the Spaniards found in 
their Navigations Southward. Wherefore it is not onely 
more like to be true, but ought also of necessitie to 
be concluded that betweene both the lands hitherto 
unknowen, there should be certaine great open places 
whereby the waters should thus continually passe from 
the East unto the West: which waters I suppose to 
be driven about the globe of the earth by the uncessant 
moving and impulsion of the heavens, and not to bee 
swallowed up and cast up againe by the breathing of 
Demagorgoen, as some have imagined, because they see 
the seas by increase and decrease to ebbe and flowe. 
"Sebastian Cabot himselfe named those lands Bac- 
calaos, because that in the Seas thereabout hee found 
so great multitudes of certaine bigge fishes much like 
unto Tunies (which the inhabitants call Baccalaos) 
that they sometimes stayed his shippe. He found also 
the people of those regions covered with beastes skinnes, 
yet not without the use of reason. He also saith there 



86 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery- 
is great plentie of Beares in those regions which use to 
eate fish: for plunging themselves into ye water, where 
they perceive a multitude of these fishes to be, they 
fasten their clawes into their scales and so draw them 
to land and eate them, so (as he saith) the Beares being 
thus satisfied with fish, are not noisome to men. Hee 
declareth further, that in many places of these Regions 
he saw great plentie of Copper among the inhabitants. 

"Cabot is my very friend, whom I use familiarly, 
and delight to have him sometimes keepe mee company 
in mine owne house. For being called out of England 
by the commandement of the Catholique King of 
Castile, after the death of King Henry the seventh of 
that name King of England, he was made one of our 
councill and Assistants, as touching the affaires of the 
new Indies, looking for ships dayly to be furnished for 
him to discover this hid secret of Nature." 

The fifth testimony, out of Gomara's "General 
History," is the following extract from a history of the 
West Indies published in 1552-1553. Francisco Lopez 
de Gomara was a priest, sometime chaplain of Her- 
nando Cortes, and was one of the most distinguished 
historical writers of Spain in his time. 

"The testimonie of Francis Lopez de Gomara, 
a Spaniard, in the fourth Chapter of the second 
Booke of his generall history of the West Indies 
concerning the first discoverie of a great part of 
the West Indies, to wit, from 58 to 38 degrees 
of latitude, by Sebastian Cabota out of England. 

"He which brought most certaine newes of the 



The English Claim to America 87 

countrey & people of Baccalaos, saith Gomara, was 
Sebastian Cabote a Venetian, which rigged up two 
ships at the cost of K. Henry the 7 of England, having 
great desire to traffique for the spices as the Portingales 
did. He carried with him 300 men, and tooke the 
way towards Island [Iceland] from beyond the Cape 
of Labrador, untill he found himselfe in 58 degrees and 
better. He made relation that in the moneth of July 
it was so cold, and the ice so great, that hee durst not 
passe any further: that the dayes were very long, in a 
maner without any night, and for that short night that 
they had, it was very cleare. Cabot feeling the cold, 
turned towards the West, refreshino- himselfe at Ba- 
calaos: and afterwards he sayled along the coast unto 
38 degrees, and from thence he shaped his course to 
returne into England." 

The sixth is this brief passage from the Chronicle of 
Robert Fabian, "sometime alderman of London," 
which Hakluyt received in manuscript from John Stow, 
the famous London antiquarian and annalist: 

"A note of Sebastian Cabots first discoverie 
of part of the Indies taken out of the latter part 
of Robert Fabians Chronicle not hitherto printed, 
which is in the custodie of M. John Stow a dili- 
gent preserver of Antiquities. 

"In the 13 yeere of K. Henry the 7 (by meanes of 
one John Cabot a Venetian which made himselfe very 
expert and cunning in knowledge of the circuit of the 
world and Hands of the same, as by a Sea card and 



88 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

other demonstrations reasonable he shewed) the king 
caused to man and victuall a ship at Bristow [Bristol] 
to search for an Island which he said hee knew well 
was rich, and replenished with great commodities: 
Which shippe thus manned and victualed at the kings 
cost, divers Marchants of London ventured in her 
small stocks, being in her as chiefe patron the said 
Venetian. And in the company of the said ship, sailed 
also out of Bristow three or foure small ships fraught 
with sleght and grosse marchandises, as course cloth, 
caps, laces, points & other trifles. And so departed 
from Bristow in the beginning of May, of whom in 
this Maiors [mayor's] time returned no tidings." 

The following mention, by "the foresaid Robert 
Pabian," "of three Savages which Cabot brought home 
and presented unto the King in the foureteenth yere 
of his raigne," is given as a sort of supplementary tes- 
timony (the authenticity of which is questioned by 
Richard Biddle, Sebastian Cabot's biographer, who 
charges this kidnapping of natives upon a later nav- 
igator) : 

"This yeere also were brought unto the King three 
men taken in the Newfound Island that before I spake 
of, in William Purchas time being Maior: These were 
clothed in beasts skins, & did eate raw flesh, and spake 
such speach that no man could understand them, and 
in their demeanour like to brute beastes, whom the 
King kept a time after. Of the which upon two yeeres 
after, I saw two apparelled after the manner of Eng- 
lishmen in Westminster pallace, which that time I 



The English Claim to America 89 

could not discerne from Englishmen, til I was learned 
what they were, but as for speach I heard none of 
them utter one word." 

And the whole is preceded by that legend of the first 
discovery of the West Indies by Madoc the Welshman, 
in the year 11 70, which is cast in apparently for what it 
may be worth. 



VIII 

VENTURES IN THE CABOTS' TRACK 

IN the illustrious year of 1498, which witnessed 
Sebastian Cabot's westward discoveries along 
North America, and Columbus's sighting of South 
America, Vasco da Gama, pursuing his eastward nav- 
igations, crossed the Indian Ocean, dropped anchor off 
the city of Calicut, on the Malagar coast, and set up 
on shore a marble pillar as proof of his discovery of 
India by an ocean highway. Thus Portugal offset 
Spain's claim to the West Indies by priority of dis- 
covery, with a claim through first discovery to the 
East Indies, and stood ready to assert it, while England 
allowed her right, by the same token, in the North 
American continent to lapse. 

Spain and Portugal continued in sharp rivalry during 
the half decade immediately following. In 1499 the 
coast of South America was touched at about Surinam 
by the Spaniard Alonzo de Ojeda and the Florentine 
Amerigo Vespucci, sailing for Spain. The same year 
the coast of Brazil was discovered by a Portuguese 
navigator, Vincente Yarez Pinzon. He had been a 
companion of Columbus. The next year possession 
of Brazil was taken for the crown of Portugal by Pedro 

90 



Ventures in the Cabots' Track 91 

Alvarez Cabral, a Portuguese commander, who was 
driven to its coast by adverse winds when making a 
voyage to India by Vasco da Gama's course. Three 
years later a settlement was begun there by Amerigo 
Vespucci, now in the service of Portugal. In 1500 
Gaspar de Cortereal, Portuguese, attempted to follow 
the Cabots' track of discovery opened in the northwest. 
Coming upon the coast of Labrador he explored it for 
six hundred miles. He discovered Nova Scotia, the 
St. Lawrence, and also Hudson's Strait. Then he 
returned to Lisbon with his two caravals freighted with 
natives — men, women, and children — whom he had 
captured and brought home for slavery. The next 
year Cortereal departed on a second voyage for further 
discovery and presumably more slaves, and was never 
more heard from. His brother, Michael de Cortereal, 
sailed in search of him, and also was lost. Then two 
armed ships were sent out by the king of Portugal to 
search for both brothers; but no trace of either could 
be found. It was finally assumed that both fell victims 
to the vengeance of the natives for the thefts of their 
people. Upon the strength of Gaspar de Cortereal's 
voyages Portugal attempted to establish a claim to the 
discovery of Newfoundland and the adjacent coast of 
North America. But in this she was not successful. 
Spain, however, held firmly to all of her American pos- 
sessions, indefinitely defined. 

England remained passive till 1501, when a new 
movement was started in the Cabots' home city of 
Bristol. Three Bristol merchants — Richard Ward, 



92 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Thomas Ashehurst, and John Thomas — and three 
Portuguese mariners — John Fernandus, Francis Fer- 
nandus, and John Gundlur — came together for a vent- 
ure in the track of the Cabots. A patent was ob- 
tained from King Henry, under date of March 19, 
1501, which conferred upon them the same powers that 
had originally been given the Cabots, and was in terms 
similar to the Cabot patents. Whether they sent out 
an expedition that year is not known. The next year, 
however, the personnel of the company had changed, 
with the dropping of Ward and Thomas and the sub- 
stitution of Hugh Eliot in their place; and under this 
organization, probably in 1503, a voyage was made 
which resulted in discovery at Newfoundland and 
along the Labrador coast. The only record of this 
voyage is given by Hakluyt in the following excerpt 
from the merchant Robert Thome's "Booke" of 
1527, addressed to the English Ambassador at the 
court of Spain: 

"A briefe extract concerning the discoverie of 
Newfound-land taken out of the booke of M. 
Robert Thorne, to Doctor Leigh &c. 

"I reason that as some sickenesses are hereditarie, 
so this inclination or desire of this discovery I in- 
herited from my father, which with another marchant 
of Bristol named Hugh Eliot, were the discoverers of 
the Newfound-lands; of the which there is no doubt 
(as nowe plainely appeareth) if the Mariners would 
then have bene ruled, and followed their Pilots minde, 



Ventures in the Cabots' Track 93 

but the lands of the West Indies, from whence all the 
golde commeth, had bene ours; for all is one coast as 
the Card appeareth, and is aforesaid." 

The " card " here referred to was a rude map of the 
world on which, along the line of the coast of Labrador, 
was written the inscription in Latin, "This land was 
first discovered by the English." A short time after 
this voyage the fisheries about Newfoundland had be- 
come well known to Frenchmen, and were being fre- 
quented by the hardy fishermen of Brittany and Nor- 
mandy. Hence the later name of the isle of Cape 
Breton. 

No further patents for English navigations were 
issued for more than half a century. Still English 
interest in maritime discovery and commercial ad- 
vancement was not altogether stagnant during this 
period. Early in Henry the eighth's reign quite a 
promising enterprise was set on foot by Sebastian 
Cabot, then back in England, and in high standing for 
his knowledge in cosmography. He had been in Spain 
for seven years (having entered Spain's service three 
years after the death of Henry the seventh, which oc- 
curred in 1509), acting part of that time as one of the 
council of the Indies, and latterly completing plans for a 
new expedition for the search of the Northwest passage 
under the Spanish flag, which he had been compelled 
to abandon by Ferdinand's death, in 1516. Returned 
to England he had found Henry the eighth hospitable 
to his scheme and had induced him to fit out a small 
squadron for its pursuit. The supreme command, 



94 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

however, was given to another, — Sir Thomas Pert, at 
that time vice-admiral of England, — and this proved 
disastrous to the enterprise; for, it is recorded, Sir 
Thomas's "faint heart was the cause that the voyage 
took none effect." All that the expedition accom- 
plished was a visit to the coast of Brazil, to San Do- 
mingo, and to Porto Rico, whence it returned to Eng- 
land. Hakluyt gives a narration which he supposes to 
relate to this voyage, written by the Spanish historian 
Gonzalo de Oviedo, and reprinted by Ramusio, from 
whom he translates it: 

"In the yeere 151 7 an English Rover under the 
colour of travelling to discover, came with a great 
shippe unto the parts of Brasill on the coast of the 
firme land, and from thence he crossed over unto this 
Hand of Hispaneola, and arrived neere unto the mouth 
of the haven of this citie of S. Domingo, and sent his 
shipboate full of men on shoare and demaunded leave 
to enter into this haven, saying that hee came with 
marchandise to traffique. But at that very instant the 
governour of the castle, Francis de Tapia, caused a 
tire of ordinance to be shot from the castle at the ship, 
for she bare in directly with the haven. When the 
Englishmen sawe this, they withdrew themselves out, 
and those that were in the shipboate got themselves 
with all speede on shipboord. And in trueth the 
warden of the castle committed an oversight: for if 
the shippe had entred into the haven the men thereof 
could not have come on lande without leave both of the 
citie and of the castle. Therefore the people of the 




KING HENRY VIII. 
From a photograph, copyrighted by Walker & Boutall, of a painting. 



Ventures in the Cabots' Track 95 

ship seeing how they were received sayled toward the 
Hand of S. John, and entring into the port of S. Ger- 
maine, the English men parled [parleyed] with those of 
the towne, requiring victuals and things needefull to 
furnish their ship, and complained of the inhabitants 
of the city of S. Domingo saying that they came not to 
doe any harme but to trade and traffique for their 
money and merchandise. In this place they had 
certaine victuals and for recompense they gave and 
paid them with certaine vessell of wrought tinne and 
other things. And afterward they departed toward 
Europe. . . ." 

Hakluyt resents Oviedo's use of the term "Rover" in 
this account and his assumption that the object of the 
expedition was other than discovery and traffic, re- 
marking tartly that Spanish and Portuguese writers 
"account all other nations for Pirates, rovers, and 
thieves who visit any heathen coast that they have 
once sailed by or looked on." 

With the failure of this enterprise Cabot again left 
England and reentered the service of Spain, taking the 
post of "pilot major." 



IX 

THE NORTHEAST PASSAGE 

IATER in Henry the eighth's reign, in 1527, a largei 
. expedition, composed of "divers cunning men," 
set out for Northern discovery, but with no more 
satisfactory results. Their enterprise was impelled by 
the weighty reasoning of Robert Thorne, the observant 
Bristol merchant, then in Seville (whom Hakluyt terms 
a "notable member and ornament of his country"), 
in his "large discourse" of that year to Dr. Ley, the 
English ambassador in Spain, urging the immediate 
need of English discovery in the north parts, "even to 
the North pole," to overcome the advantages gained 
by Spain and Portugal in their discoveries of "all the 
Indies and seas Occidental and Oriental," so "by this 
part of the Orient and Occident" compassing the 
world. Who were the "divers cunning men" com- 
posing this expedition Hakluyt endeavoured to ascer- 
tain through much enquiry among "such as by their 
years and delight in Navigation" might inform him. 
He learned, however, of one only, and his name he 
could not get — a certain canon of St. Paul's in Lon- 

96 



The Northeast Passage 97 

don, a "great mathematician, and indued with wealth," 
apparently the leader. Two "fair ships" formed the 
squadron, one of them called "The Dominus Robis- 
cum." They set forth out of the Thames on a mid- 
May day. When sailing "far northwestward" one of 
the ships was cast away as it entered into "a dangerous 
gulph about the great opening between the North parts 
of Newfoundland and the country lately called by her 
Majestie Meta Incognita." Thereupon the other ship, 
"shaping her course toward Cape Briton and the 
coaste of Arambec, and oftentimes putting their men 
on land to search the state of those regions, returned 
home about the beginning of October." So this story 
lamely ends. 

Six years later an enterprise for discovery in the same 
parts was projected by certain London men, with the 
king's "favour and good countenance," under the 
leadership of one "Master Hore," a "man of goodly 
stature and of great courage, and given to the studie of 
Cosmographie." Master Hore's "persuasions" were 
so effective that he soon drew into the scheme "many 
gentlemen of the Inns of court and of the Chancerie, 
and divers others of good worship, desirous to see the 
strange things of the world." Two "tall ships" were 
obtained for the venture, the "Trinitie," of one hundred 
and forty tons, which was designated the "admiral" 
(flag-ship) of the fleet, and the " Minion." The com- 
pany numbered about sixscore persons, of whom thirty 
were gentlemen. Among the latter were enrolled one 
Armigil Wade, "a very learned and vertuous gentle- 



98 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

man," afterward clerk of the councils of Henry the 
eighth and his successor, Edward the sixth; one Joy, 
subsequently gentleman of the king's chapel; and 
Oliver Dawbeny, a merchant of London. All were 
"mustered in warlike manner" at Gravesend. After 
receiving the Sacrament they embarked and sailed 
away at the end of April, 1536. The adventures of 
these gentlemen-explorers were rare and tragic. 

From the time that they left Gravesend they were 
more than two months at sea without touching land. 
At length they arrived in the region of Cape Breton. 
Shaping their course northwestward they came to the 
"island of Penguin," where they landed. This was 
found to be a place "full of rocks and stones" and in- 
habited by flocks of "great foules white and gray, as 
big as geese." These strange fowls were the sea-birds 
known as Penguins from their first discovery on this 
island, and afterward, when appearing in other parts, 
called Great Auks or Gare-Fowls. The sailors drove 
large numbers of them into the boats, and they made 
good eating. Quantities of their eggs were also seen 
on the island. No natives were encountered by the 
voyagers till they had lain anchored off Newfoundland 
for several days. Then one morning while Oliver 
Dawbeny was walking on the hatches he spied a boat 
full of savages rowing down the bay toward the ships. 
A ship's boat was quickly manned and sent out to meet 
and take them. But at its approach the savages fled 
to a neighbouring island up the bay. The English 
pursued them, but they got away. On the island a 



The Northeast Passage 99 

fire was found, and by it the side of a bear on a wooden 
spit ready for roasting. A boot of leather was picked 
up, "garnished on the outward side of the calf with 
certain brave trails as it were of raw silke"; also a 
"great warm mitten." The voyagers tarried in the 
Newfoundland seas till famine came upon them. 

Now the tale becomes gruesome. Temporary relief 
was had from the stock of a nest of an osprey "that 
brought hourly to her young great plentie of divers 
sort of fish." For a while they lived on raw herbs 
and roots gathered on the main. Then, the relief 
from herbs becoming of "little purpose," some of the 
hardest pressed, when ashore in companies of two, 
seeking food, fell to feeding upon their mates. "The 
fellow killed his mate while he stooped to take up a 
root for his relief, and cutting out pieces of his body 
whom he had murthered broyled the same on the 
coles [fire] and greedily devoured them." By this 
means, the chronicler grimly adds, "the company de- 
creased." The officers on shipboard wondered at this 
falling off till the fate of the missing was disclosed 
through the admission of one well-fed sailor, under 
the goading taunts of a starving mate who had come 
upon him in a field, drawn thither by the pungent odour 
of broiled flesh, that the meat upon which he had 
feasted was a piece of a man's side. 

When this report was brought to the captain he 
called the company together and addressed them 
earnestly upon the awfulness of such conduct. "If," 
he piously argued, "it had not pleased God to have 



ioo Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

helpen [helped] them in that distresse that it had been 
better to have perished in body and to have lived 
everlastingly, than to have relieved for a poore time 
their mortal bodyes and to bee condemned ever- 
lastingly both body and soule to the unquenchable 
fire of hell." He besought them all to pray "that it 
might please God to look upon their miserable present 
state and for his own mercy to relieve the same." 
Still the famine continued unrelieved. At last, in 
sheer desperation, "they agreed amongst themselves 
rather than all should perish to cast lots who should 
be killed." But the very night of this agreement, 
"such was the mercie of God" that a French ship well 
furnished with victuals hove into the harbour where 
they lay. Their action was prompt. "Such was the 
policy of the English," as our chronicler ingenuously 
puts it, "that they became masters" of the French- 
men's craft, "and changing ships and victualling them 
they set sail to come into England." In blunter words, 
they despoiled the Frenchmen of their property and 
made off" with it, leaving them behind; not altogether 
desolate, however, for they were left with a ship partly 
provisioned from their own store. 

The expedition arrived back in England about the 
end of October, when the gentlemen of the party 
enjoyed a succession of entertainments, first at a "cer- 
tain castle belonging to Sir John Luttrell," afterward 
at Bath, Bristol, and London. The voyagers told in 
their reports how they had journeyed so far northward 
that they had seen "mighty islands of ice in the sum- 



The Northeast Passage 101 

mer season on which were hawkes and other fowles 
to rest themselves being weary of flying over far from 
the main." And how they had also seen "certain 
great white fowles with red bills and red legs some- 
what bigger than herons which they supposed to be 
storkes." Some months later the despoiled French- 
men had got back to their home port, and they ap- 
peared in England with complaint to the king and 
demand for redress. After an examination of the mat- 
ter, however, the king was "so moved to pity" by 
the tale of the distress of the Englishmen, which was 
shown to be the occasion of their high-handed act, 
that "he punished not his subjects, but of his own 
purse made full and royal recompense unto the 
French." Which was certainly generous as should 
become a king. 

The account of this voyage was the one that Hakluyt 
travelled two hundred miles on horseback to get from 
the sole survivor of the company living at the time of 
his writing, or, in his own words, "to learn the whole 
truth of this voyage from his own mouth as being the 
only man now alive that was in this discovery." He 
was Thomas Buts, a son of Sir William Buts of Nor- 
folk. Hakluyt relates that upon his return from the 
voyage Buts was so changed in appearance through 
the hunger and misery he had undergone that his 
parents did not recognize him as their son till they 
found a secret mark on his person, "which was a wart 
upon one of his knees." 

With the accession of Edward the sixth, the boy 



102 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

king, in 1547, new projects began to develop for further 
discovery northward. Sebastian Cabot was again in 
England and settled at Bristol. He was now an old 
man, yet still stalwart in mind and red-blooded for 
action. His fame was widespread and he had come 
to be called "The Great Seaman." While pilot major 
of Spain, he had, with other achievements, made im- 
portant discoveries in South America. Heading an 
expedition originally planned to pursue discovery in 
the Pacific, through the Strait of Magellan (discovered 
and passed by that brilliant Portuguese, Fernao de 
Magalhaes, in 1520, who the next year discovered the 
Philippines), he had explored the River Plate, naming 
it Rio de la Plata, the Silver River, because of the 
splendour of the silver ornaments worn by the Indians 
of the region, and had anchored ofF the site of the 
present city of Buenos Ayres; had built a fort at one 
of the mouths of the Parana and begun a settlement 
there; had further ascended the Parana; penetrated 
the Paraguay; and thence entered the Vermejo, where 
he and his party had a fierce fight with the savages. 
In Edward's second year, 1549, he was appointed 
Grand Pilot of England, with an annual pension of 
£166 13s. and 6d. in consideration of the "good and 
acceptable service done and to be done" by him for 
the English crown. 

Not long after he is found turning from the North- 
west Passage and advising a new voyage for the dis- 
covery of a Northeast route to India. 

From this a project of various London merchant 



The Northeast Passage 103 

adventurers developed which resulted in an expedition 
in 1553 starting under Sir Hugh Willoughby and con- 
tinued by Richard Chancellor, which, although failing 
to find Cathay, made notable discoveries with the 
opening to Europe of the great empire of Russia. 



X 

THE OPENING OF RUSSIA 

THE Willoughby-Chancellor voyage was planned 
with much thoroughness, specifically for the ex- 
pansion of trade. It was the outcome of the 
deliberations of "certaine grave Citizens of London 
and men of great wisdome and carefull for the good 
of their Countrey" seeking means to revive commer- 
cial afFairs which had fallen into a dismal state. Eng- 
lish commodities had come to be in small request by 
neighbouring peoples. "Merchandises" (as the term 
was) which foreigners in former times eagerly sought 
were now neglected and their prices lowered, although 
the goods were carried by the English traders to the 
foreign ports; while all foreign products were "in 
great account and their prices wonderfully raised." 
Meanwhile English merchants had seen the wealth of 
Spaniards and Portuguese marvellously increase through 
the repeated discoveries of new countries and new 
trades for their nations. So these grave and wise 
citizens came at last to realize the imperative need of 
a similar course for England if she were to keep pace 
with her rivals: practically to adopt the policy which 

104 



The Opening of Russia 105 

Robert Thorne had so sagely pressed a quarter of a 
century before. 

Having resolved upon a "new and strange naviga- 
tion" they first of all brought Sebastian Cabot into 
their councils, and forming a company chose him their 
head. "After much speech and conference together" 
it was decided that three ships should be prepared for 
discovery in the northern parts of the world to open 
the way for Englishmen to unknown kingdoms north- 
eastward. The three ships were duly obtained, for the 
most part newly built craft of "very strong and well- 
seasoned planks." One at least of them was made 
especially staunch by "an excellent and ingenious in- 
vention," described as "the covering of a piece of 
keel with thin sheets of lead." This is supposed to 
have been the first instance in England of the practice 
of sheathing. It had, however, been adopted in Spain 
nearly forty years before. The ships were well fur- 
nished with armours and artillery, and were victualled 
with supplies for eighteen months. They were sever- 
ally: the "Bona Esperanza," of one hundred and 
twenty tons, designated admiral (flag-ship) of the fleet, 
the "Edward Bonaventure," one hundred and sixty 
tons, and the " Bona Confidential' ninety tons. Each 
was provided with a pinnace and a boat. 

After securing the ships the next care was the selec- 
tion of captains for the expedition. Many men of 
standing offered themselves for the headship. Among 
these most urgent for the appointment was Sir Hugh 
Willoughby, "a most valiant gentleman and well born." 



106 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Sir Hugh was chosen on account of his "goodly per- 
sonage" — he appears to have been an exceptionally 
tall man — and for his "singular skill in the service of 
warre." He had served under the Earl of Hertford, 
afterward the Duke of Somerset, in the expedition of 
1544 against Scotland, and had received the honour of 
knighthood at Leith; and during the invasions of 1547- 
1549 he held a commission on the border, and was 
sometime captain of Lowther Castle. Afterward his 
"thoughts turned to the sea" through his association 
with naval men and his friendship with Sebastian 
Cabot. The title given him was captain-general of 
the Fleet. For second in command, also drawn from 
several candidates, Richard Chancellor was elected and 
named pilot-general. He was given the charge of the 
"Edward Bonaventure" as captain. Chancellor had 
been bred up in the household of Henry Sidney, the 
father of Sir Philip Sidney. He was strongly endorsed 
as a man of "great estimation for many good partes 
of wit in him." In the prime of life, he had the ad- 
vantage of an excellent reputation for knowledge of 
the sea with a genius for adventure. As masters of 
the several ships, William GefFerson was appointed for 
the "Bona Esperanza," Stephen Borough (afterward 
chief pilot of England) for the " Edward Bonaventure," 
and Cornelius Durfoorth for the "Bona Confidentia." 
The captain-general, the pilot-general, the three ships' 
masters, the minister — Master Richard Stafford — two 
of the merchants and one of the "gentlemen" join- 
ing the expedition, and the three masters' mates, 



The Opening of Russia 107 

were designated a board of twelve counsellors for the 
voyage. 

An elaborate book of orders and instructions for the 
conduct of the fleet was compiled by Cabot; while the 
king provided a letter, written in Latin, Greek, and 
other languages, designed for presentation to any 
potentate whom the voyagers might come across in 
journeying "toward the mighty empire of Cathay," 
but most liberally addressed "to all Kings, Princes, 
Rulers, Judges, and Governours of the earth, and all 
others having any excellent dignity on the same in all 
places under the universall heaven." 

Hakluyt gives the text of both of these documents. 
Cabot's book comprised thirty-three items, as a whole 
well illustrating his ripe judgment and good seaman- 
ship. Particularly wise were his instructions as to the 
attitude of the voyagers toward new peoples whom 
they might discover. "Every nation and region is to 
be considered advisedly." The natives were not to be 
provoked by "any disdaine, laughing, contempt, or 
such like," but were to be used with "prudent circum- 
spection, with all gentlenes and courtesie." "For as 
much," he shrewdly observed, "as our people and 
shippes may appear unto them strange and wondrous, 
and their's also to ours: it is to be considered how they 
may be used, learning much of their natures and dis- 
positions by some one such person [native] as you may 
first either allure or take to be brought aboord of your 
ships, and there to learn as you may, without violence 
or force." The native so taken to be "well entertained, 



108 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

used and apparelled; to be set on the land to the in- 
tent that he or she may allure other to draw nigh to 
shew the commodities." But the succeeding instruction 
was vicious, though in accord with the brutality of the 
age: "and if the person taken may be made drunke 
with your beere or wine you shall know the secrets of 
his heart." 

The king's letter-missive defined the voyage to be 
purely a commercial affair. It was an expedition by 
sea "into farre Countreis to the intent that betweene 
our people and them a way may be opened to bring in 
and cary out merchandises." It was to seek in the 
countries that might be found heretofore unknown 
"as well such things as we lacke, as also to cary unto 
them from our regions such things as they lacke." So 
"not onely commoditie may ensue both to them and 
to us, but also an indissoluble and perpetuall league of 
friendship be established betweene us both." Free 
passage was asked for the voyagers through their 
dominions, with the assurance that nothing of theirs 
should be touched by the visitors unwillingly to them; 
and the same hospitality that they would expect their 
subjects to receive should they at any time pass by the 
regions of the English king. 

The fleet started from Ratcliffe at the time ap- 
pointed for the departure, the tenth of May (according 
to Willoughby's journal, other accounts say the twen- 
tieth) and dropped down the Thames by easy stages. 
On the "Esperanza" with Sir Hugh were the larger 
number of merchants. The minister was on the 



The Opening of Russia 109 

"Edward Bonaventure"; and among the seamen of 
the latter was William Borough, the younger brother 
of the ship's master, a lusty youth of sixteen, who 
afterward became comptroller of the queen's navy. 
The spectacle of the passage by Greenwich, where the 
court was then seated at the ancient royal palace, is 
vividly portrayed by the historian of Chancellor's 
exploits on this voyage, Clement Adams, the school- 
master: 

"The greater shippes are towed downe with boates, 
and oares, and the mariners being all apparelled in 
Watchet, or skie coloured cloth, rowed amaine and 
made way with diligence. And being come neere 
Greenewich (where the court then lay) presently upon 
the newes thereof the Courtiers came running out, and 
the common people flockt together standing very 
thicke upon the shoare: the privie Counsel, they lookt 
out at the windowes of the Court, and the rest ranne 
up to the toppes of the towers: the shippes hereupon 
discharge their Ordinance, and shoot off their pieces 
after the maner of warre, and of the sea, insomuch 
that the tops of the hilles sounded therewith, the valleys 
and the waters gave an Echo, and the Mariners, they 
shouted in such sort that the skie rang again with the 
noyse thereof. One stoode in the poope of the ship, 
and by his jesture bids farewell to his friends in the 
best maner he could. Another walks upon the hatches, 
another climbes the shrowdes, another stands upon the 
maine yarde, and another in the top of the shippe." 

The boy king heard the parting salute but he did 



no Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

not see the show, for he lay in his chamber gravely ill 
of consumption. And a fortnight after the ships had 
taken the sea, he died. 

The fleet tarried some time off" Harwich and did not 
finally get away till the twenty-third of June. By the 
middle of July Heligoland, in the North Sea, was 
reached and visited. Next, Rb'st Island, where an- 
other short stay was made. Next, on the twenty- 
seventh of July, anchors were dropped at one of the 
Lofoden Islands, and there the voyagers remained for 
three days, finding the isle "plentifully inhabited" by 
"very gentle people." Next they coasted along these 
islands north-northwest till the second of August, when 
they attempted to make another harbour, having ar- 
ranged with a native, who came out to them in a skiff 
for a pilot to conduct them to "Wardhouse" (Vardo- 
huus), an island haven off Finmark, with a "castle," 
then a rendezvous of northern mariners. But violent 
whirlwinds prevented their entrance and they were 
constrained to take to the sea again. Thereupon the 
captain-general ran up the admiral's flag signalling a 
conference of the chief officers of the fleet on board his 
ship. It was then agreed that in the event of a sepa- 
ration of the ships by a tempest or other mishap each 
should at once make for "Wardhouse," and the first 
arriving in safety should there await the coming of the 
rest. 

That very day the dreaded separation occurred. 
Late in the afternoon a tempest suddenly arose which 
so lashed the sea that the ships were tossed hither and 



The Opening of Russia in 

thither from their intended course. Above the storm 
on the "Edward Bonaventure" was heard the loud 
voice of Sir Hugh calling to Captain Chancellor to 
keep by the admiral. But the "Esperanza," bearing 
all sails, sped onward with such swiftness that despite 
all of Chancellor's efforts to follow, she was soon out of 
his sight. That was the last seen of her or of Sir Hugh 
and his companions. Nor was the "Confidentia" 
again seen by the men of the "Bonaventure." Both 
ships and their companies had passed forever from 
their sight; and the miserable fate of their mates was 
not known when they had completed their voyage and 
returned to England. 

The story was finally told in Willoughby's journal, 
which was found a year or more afterward with the 
ships and the frozen bodies of the luckless Sir Hugh 
and his companions, seventy in all, at Lapland. Hak- 
luyt gives it under this caption: 

"The Voyage of Sir Hugh Willoughbie knight, where- 
in he unfortunately perished at Arzina Reca in 
Lapland, Anno 1553." It is entitled: "The true copie 
of a Note found written in one of the two ships, to 
wit, the Speranza, which wintred in Lappia where Sir 
Willoughbie and all his companie died, being frozen 
to death Anno 1553." 

This journal comprised a record of the expedition 
from the start to Willoughby's occupation of the Lap- 
land haven. It opened with a statement of the object 
of the voyage and its institution by Cabot and the 
London Merchant Adventurers; a list of the ships and 



H2 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

their burden, together with the names of their com- 
panies; and the text of the oath administered to the 
ships' masters. Then followed the log of the voyage, 
beginning with the departure from RatclifFe. From 
this it appears that the morning after the storm which 
had parted the ships, the " Esperanza," with the lifting 
of a fog, espied the "Confidentia," and thereafter 
these two ships managed to keep together. Seeing 
nothing of the " Bonaventure" they started in company 
to reach the rendezvous at "Wardhouse." But it was 
not long before they lost their way. Through August 
and into September they sailed and drifted in various 
directions, northeast, south-southeast, northwest by 
west, west-southwest, north by east. On the four- 
teenth of August they discovered land in seventy-two 
degrees (which Hakluyt terms "Willoughbyie's Land"), 
but could not reach it because of shoal water and much 
ice. At length, in the middle of September, they came 
upon land, rocky, high, and forbidding, apparently 
uninhabited; and so to the desolate Lapland haven 
which ultimately became their grave. Herein were 
found "very many seale fishes and other great fishes," 
and upon the main were seen "beares, great deere, 
foxes, with divers strange beasts as guloines [or ellons, 
Hakluyt notes], and such other which were to us un- 
knowen and also wonderful." Then the sad record 
closes : 

"Thus remaining in this haven the space of a weeke, 
seeing the yeere farre spent, & also very evill wether, 
as frost, snow, and haile, as though it had been the 



The Opening of Russia 113 

deepe of winter, we thought best to winter there. 
Wherefore we sent out three men South-southwest, to 
search if they would find people, who went three dayes 
journey, but could finde none; after that, we sent other 
three Westward foure daies journey, which also re- 
turned without finding any people. Then sent we 
three men Southeast three dayes journey, who in like 
sorte returned without finding of people, or any simili- 
tude of habitation." 

The will of Sir Hugh was also found with his journal, 
from which it appeared that he and most of his com- 
pany were alive so late as January. Their haven lay 
near to Kegor in Norwegian Lapland and was after- 
ward known as Arzina. They were first discovered, 
entombed in their ships, by Russian fishermen cruising 
in their haven, the following summer. Willoughby's 
frozen body lay in his cabin. The next season, the 
summer of 1555, the two ships were recovered, with 
much of their goods, and restored for more service. 

Their subsequent fate is to be related farther on. 
Our present concern is with Richard Chancellor and 
the "Edward Bonaventure" after the dispersion of the 
fleet. 

"Pensive, heavie, and sorrowfull" at the disappear- 
ance of his fellows, Chancellor shaped his course for 
"Wardhouse," according to the agreement, and in due 
time safely arrived there. When a week had passed 
with no sign of the other ships, he determined to pro- 
ceed alone in the purposed voyage, in which decision 
all of his company acquiesced. Now follows the story 



H4 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

of "The Voyage of Richard Chanceller Pilote major, 
the first discoverer by sea of the Kingdom of Muscovia, 
Anno 1553," told in two documents reproduced by 
Hakluyt — Chancellor's "rehearsal" of his adventures 
with an account of the wealth and barbaric splendour 
in the dominions of the "mighty Emperour of Russia 
and the Duke of Moscovia," and Clement Adams's 
narrative of the voyage as he received it "from the 
mouth of the said Richard Chanceler." 

First of the voyage. 

Sailing from Vardohuus, "Master Chanceler held on 
his course towards that unknowen part of the world," 
and came "at last to the place where hee found no 
night at all, but a continuall light and brightnesse of 
the Sunne shining clearley upon the huge and mightie 
Sea. And having the benefite of this perpetuall light 
for certaine dayes, at the length it pleased God to bring 
them into a certaine great Bay, which was of one hun- 
dredth miles or thereabout over." Thus they had 
entered the White Sea and had reached the Bay of 
Saint Nicholas, in the neighbourhood of the modern 
Archangel. Here, "somewhat farre within," they cast 
anchor and gazed about them. Presently in the dis- 
tance a fisher boat was espied. Thereupon Chan- 
cellor with a few of his men took the pinnace and went 
out to meet it, hoping to learn of its crew what country 
they had come to, and what manner of people. But 
the fishermen were so amazed at the "strange great- 
nesse" of the " Bonaventure," the like of which had 
never before been seen in those waters, that they in- 



The Opening of Russia 115 

continently fled as the strangers approached. Soon, 
however, they were overtaken. Then followed this 
scene in which Chancellor's cleverness was exhibited, 
and also, perhaps, his remembrance of that item in 
Cabot's book of ordinances as to the handling of new 
peoples discovered. 

" Being come to them they (being in great feare as 
men half dead) prostrated themselves before him, 
offering to kisse his feete; but he (according to his 
great and singular courtesie) looked pleasantly upon 
them, comforting them by signes and gestures, refusing 
those dueties and reverences of theirs, and taking them 
up in all loving sort from the ground." 

Their confidence thus won they spread the report on 
shore of the arrival of a " strange nation of a singular 
gentlenesse and courtesie"; and soon the common 
people came forward with hospitable offerings. They 
would also traffic with their "new-come ghests" (guests) 
had they not been bound by a "certaine religious use 
and custome not to buy any forreine [foreign] com- 
modities without the knowledge and consent of their 
king." By this time the Englishmen had learned that 
the country was called Russia, or Muscovy, and 
that "Ivan Vasiliwich (which was at that time their 
King's name) ruled and governed farre and wide 
in those places." This was Ivan the fourth, "the 
Terrible." 

To the queries of the "barbarous Russes" about 
themselves Chancellor managed to make it understood 
that they were Englishmen sent by the king of England, 



n6 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

and bearing a letter from him to their king, seeking 
only his "amitie and friendship and traffique with his 
people whereby the subjects of both kingdoms would 
profit." But his court was many miles distant, so 
there must be delay. Chancellor asked them to sell 
him provisions and other necessities. Hostages were 
also demanded for the "more assurance" of the safety 
of himself and company. The governor and chief men 
promised that they would do what they lawfully could 
to "pleasure him" till they had learned their king's 
will. While this palavering was going on a sledsman 
had been secretly despatched as a messenger to the 
emperor at Moscow, informing him of the new arrivals 
and asking his pleasure concerning them. After a 
considerable wait Chancellor became impatient, and 
thinking it was their intention to delude him, he 
threatened to depart and continue his voyage unless 
their promises were immediately fulfilled. Such was 
far from their desire, for they coveted the wares that 
the Englishmen had displayed before them. Accord- 
ingly, although their messenger had not returned, they 
agreed without further delay to furnish what the com- 
pany wanted and to conduct them by land to the 
presence of their king. 

Then began a long overland journey by Chancellor 
and his principal men to Moscow on sleds. When the 
greater part had been passed the " Russes' " messenger 
was met. He had wandered off his way seeking the 
English ship in a wrong direction. He delivered to 
Chancellor a letter from the emperor, "written in all 



The Opening of Russia 117 

courtesie and in the most loving manner," inviting the 
Englishmen to his court and offering them post horses 
for the journey free of cost. Instantly their conductors 
overwhelmed them with kindnesses. So anxious now 
were the "Russes" to show their favours that they 
''began to quarrell, yea, and to fight also in striving 
and contending which of them should put their post 
horses to the sledde." So after "much adoe and great 
paines taken in this long and wearie journey (for they 
had travailed very neere fifteene hundred miles), Master 
Chanceler came at last to Mosco the chiefe citie of the 
kingdome, and the seate of the king." 

Now of Chancellor's reception by Ivan and the 
glitter of his court. 

The opening scene which dazzled the eyes of the 
Englishmen, when summoned to present King Ed- 
ward's letter, is pictured by Clement Adams: "Being 
entred within the gates of the Court there sate a very 
honourable companie of Courtiers to the number of 
one hundred, all apparelled in cloth of golde downe to 
their ankles: and therehence being conducted into the 
chamber of the presence our men beganne to wonder 
at the Majestie of the Emperour: his seate was aloft, 
in a very royall throne, having on his head a Diademe, 
or Crowne of golde, apparelled with a robe all of 
Goldsmiths worke, and in his hande hee held a Scepter 
garnished and beset with precious stones . . . : on the 
one side of him stood his chiefe Secretarie, on the other 
side the great Commander of Silence, both of them 
arayed also in cloth of golde: and then there sate the 



n8 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Counsel of one hundred and fiftie in number, all in 
like sort arayed and of great state." 

Chancellor also sketches this scene, varying some- 
what in detail: "And when the Duke was in his place 
appointed the interpretorr came for me into the utter 
[outer] chamber where sate one hundred or mor gen- 
tlemen, all in cloth of golde very sumptuous, and from 
thence I came into the Counsaile chamber where sate the 
Duke himselfe with his nobles, which were a faire com- 
pany: they sate round about the chamber on high, yet 
so that he himselfe sate much higher than any of his 
nobles in a chaire gilt, and in a long garment of beaten 
golde, with an emperial crown upon his head and a 
staffe of cristall and golde in his right hand, and 
his other hand halfe leaning on his chaire. The 
Chancellour stoode up with the Secretary before the 
Duke." 

After he had delivered the king's letter and a formal 
interchange of courtesies, the emperor invited him to 
dine with the court. Of this feast, at the "golden 
palace," and the pomp of it, we have Chancellor's 
quaintly minute description: 

"And so I came into the hall, which was small and 
not great as is the Kings Majesties of England, and the 
table was covered with a tablecloth; and the Marshall 
sate at the ende of the table with a little white rod in his 
hand, which boorde was full of vessell of golde: and on 
the other side of the hall did stand a faire cupboarde of 
plate. From thence I came into the dining chamber 
where the Duke himselfe sate at his table without cloth 



The Opening of Russia 119 

of estate, in a gowne of silver, with a crowne emperiale 
upon his head, he sate in a chaire somewhat hie [high]. 
There sate none neare him by a great way. There 
were long tables set round about the chamber which 
were full set with such as the Duke had at dinner: they 
were all in white. Also the places where the tables 
stoode were higher by two steppes than the rest of the 
house. In the middest of the chamber stoode a table 
or cupbord to set plate on; which stoode full of cuppes 
of golde: and amongst all the rest there stoode foure 
marveilous great pottes or crudences as they call them, 
of golde and silver: I thinke they were a good yarde 
and a halfe high. By the cupborde stoode two gentle- 
men with napkins on their shoulders, and in their 
handes each of them had a cuppe of gold set with 
pearles and precious stones, which were the Dukes owne 
drinking cups: when he was disposed, he drunke them 
off at a draught. And for his service at meate it came 
in without order, yet it was very rich service: for all 
were served in gold, not onely he himselfe, but also all 
the rest of us, and it was very massie [massive]: the 
cups also were of golde and very massie. 

"The number that dined there that day was two 
hundred persons, and all were served in golden vessell. 
The gentlemen that waited were all in cloth of gold, 
and they served him with caps on their heads. Before 
the service came in the Duke sent to every man a 
great shiver of bread, and the bearer called the party 
so sent to by his name aloude, and sayd, John Basilivich 
Emperour of Russia and great Duke of Moscovia doth 



120 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

reward thee with bread: then must all men stand up, 
and doe at all times when those wordes are spoken. 
And then last of all he giveth the Marshall bread, 
whereof he eateth before the Dukes Grace, and so doth 
reverence and departeth. Then commeth the Dukes 
service of the Swannes all in pieces, and every one in 
a severall dish: the which the Duke sendeth as he did 
the bread, and the bearer saeth the same wordes as he 
sayd before. And as I sayd before, the service of his 
meate is in no order, but commeth in dish by dish: and 
then after that the Duke sendeth drinke, with the like 
saying as before is tolde. Also before dinner hee 
changed his crowne, and in dinner time two crownes; 
so that I saw three severall crownes upon his head in 
one day. 

"And thus when his service was all come in hee gave 
to every one of his gentlemen waiters meate with his 
owne hand, & so likewise drinke. His intent thereby is, 
as I have heard, that every man shall know perfectly 
his servants. Thus when dinner is done hee calleth his 
nobles before him name by name, that it is a wonder 
to heare howe he could name them, having so many 
as he hath." 

Chancellor furnishes also vivid descriptions of the 
power of the emperor in his vast dominions and of his 
prowess in war. Lord over many countries, his power 
was "marvellously great." He was able to bring into 
the field two or three hundred thousand men. He 
never entered the field himself with a force under two 
hundred thousand men, at the same time supplying 



The Opening of Russia 121 

all his borders with men of arms. Neither husband- 
man nor merchant was taken to his wars. All of his 
warriors were horsemen, and were archers, having such 
bows as the Turks had. Their armour comprised a 
coat of plate and a skull cap, some of the coats being 
covered with velvet or cloth of gold. All their trap- 
pings were gorgeous, for their desire was to be sumptu- 
ous in the field, especially the nobles and gentlemen. 
The emperor outshone all in the richness of his attire 
and furnishings. His pavilion was covered either with 
cloth of gold or silver, and so set with stones that it was 
"wonderful to see." On all their diplomatic travels 
the same gorgeousness was displayed. While Chan- 
cellor was in Moscow two ambassadors were sent to 
Poland, with an escort of five hundred horse. "Their 
sumptuousnes was above measure, not onely in them- 
selves, but also in their horses, as velvet, cloth of 
golde, and cloth of silver set with pearles and not scant." 
In ordinary life, however, the raiment of all classes was 
of the simplest. 

Their manner of fighting and the rough life of the 
common soldier were thus portrayed: "They are men 
without al order in the field. For they runne hurl- 
ing on heapes, and for the most part they never give 
battel to their enemies: but that which they doe they 
doe it all by stelth. But I beleeve they be such men 
for hard living as are not under the sun: for no cold 
will hurt them. Yea and though they lie in the field 
two moneths, at such time as it shall freese more then 
a yard thicke, the common souldier hath neither tent nor 



122 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

anything else over his head: the most defence they 
have against the wether is a felte which is set against 
the winde and wether, and when Snow commeth hee 
doth cast it off and maketh him a fire and laieth him 
down thereby. Thus doe the most of all his men except 
they bee gentlemen which have other provision of their 
owne. Their lying in the fielde is not so strange as is 
their hardnes: for every man must carie and make pro- 
vision for himselfe & his horse for a moneth or two, 
which is very wonderful. For he himselfe shal live upon 
water & otemeale mingled together cold, and drinke 
water thereto: his horse shal eat green wood & such 
like baggage & shal stand open in the cold field without 
covert, & yet wil he labour & serve him right well." 
At which Chancellor exclaims with admiration, "I 
pray you amongst all our boasting warriors how many 
should we find to endure the field with them but one 
moneth ? I know no such region about us that beareth 
that name for man & beast. Now what might be made 
of these men if they were trained & broken to order 
and knowledge of civill wars ? " Other very practical 
information related to the manners, customs, and re- 
ligion of the Russians and to the rich commodities of 
their country, offering prosperous trade for English 
merchants. 

This illuminating "rehearsal" of Chancellor's, "writ 
with his own hande," the earliest account of a people 
but vaguely known to Western Europe, and "still on 
the confines of barbarism," was an unofficial paper 
addressed by the sailor-writer to his "singular good 



The Opening of Russia 123 

uncle Master Christopher Frothingham," with the 
modest admonition: 

"Sir, Read and correct 
For great is the defect." 

Chancellor and his chief men remained in Moscow 
through the winter, and when they departed to rejoin 
their ship at St. Nicholas for the homeward voyage, 
the captain carried a letter from the emperor to the 
English monarch granting freedom to his dominions 
and every facility of trade to English merchants and 
ships. 

Thus Russia was discovered by sea to commercial 
Europe by Englishmen. 



XI 

VOYAGES FOR THE MUSCOVY COMPANY 

THE arrival back at London of Chancellor's com- 
pany in the autumn of 1554 was greeted with 
much rejoicing, while the tales that they told of 
the strange sights they had seen and the great things 
they had accomplished filled the merchant adventurers 
with admiration. Uneasiness over the fate of Sir 
Hugh Willoughby and the men of the two lost ships 
tempered their enthusiasm; but their hope and belief 
were strong that the missing ones would ultimately be 
safely found, and immediate steps were taken toward 
a search for them. 

Acting upon Chancellor's wondrous reports and the 
letters he brought, the English sovereign, now Mary, 
with her consort Philip of Spain, in February, 1555, 
granted a charter to the promoters under the name of 
the Merchant Adventurers of England, and constituted 
Sebastian Cabot governor of the corporation for life, in 
consideration that he had been the "chiefest setter 
forth" of the first voyage. Thus was established the 
great Muscovy Company with a monopoly of the new 
Russian trade, and empowered further to promote dis- 

124 



Voyages for the Muscovy Company 125 

coveries in unknown regions — "lands, territories, isles, 
dominions, and seigniories" — north, northeast, and 
northwest. 

In the following May (1555) the newly organized 
company despatched Chancellor on a second voyage 
to the White Sea again with the "Edward Bonaven- 
ture" and a companion ship, the "Philip and Mary," 
both freighted with English goods to be bartered for 
Russian furs and other commodities. Accompanying 
him were three factors, or agents, of the company, and 
he carried letters of amity from Mary to Ivan, written 
in Greek, Polish, and Italian. While this second voyage 
was essentially a commercial one, Chancellor was to 
continue his efforts to discover a Northeast passage, 
being instructed to "use all wayes and meanes possible 
to learne howe men may passe from Russia either by 
land or sea to Cathaia." He was also to make diligent 
enquiry among mariners and other "travelled persons" 
for tidings of Willoughby's party. 

This expedition arrived at "Wardhouse" by mid- 
summer, and Moscow was reached in November. As 
flattering courtesies as before were exchanged between 
the emperor and Chancellor, and the factors were 
freely accorded the privileges asked for. Chancellor 
remained in Moscow through the following winter and 
spring, and then prepared for his return voyage, Ivan 
having appointed an ambassador to go back with him 
personally to convey to the English court tokens of the 
emperor's good will and readiness to enter into mutual 
bonds of friendship. Chancellor had made no further 



126 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Northeastern discoveries, but the fate of Willoughby 
and his companions had been ascertained, and their 
two ships had been brought from the tragic Lapland 
haven to St. Nicholas and added to Chancellor's fleet 
there. 

The return voyage was begun from St. Nicholas in 
July (1556), the four ships — the "Edward Bonaven- 
ture," the "Philip and Mary," and the restored "Bona 
Esperanza " and " Bona Confidentia " — making a goodly 
show as they put to sea. On board of the " Bonaven- 
ture" with Chancellor was the ambassador, Osep Napea 
by name, with most of his suite, a brilliant company of 
"Russes" and numerous servants, the remainder of his 
train, Russian merchants among them, being passengers 
on the other ships. The ambassador was well supplied 
with handsome trappings with which to dazzle his hosts, 
and he carried letters "tenderly conceived" from Ivan 
to the English sovereign. All of the ships were heavy 
laden with Russian goods for the English trade, parts 
of the cargoes being taken out by the Russians; while 
on the "Bona venture" were a quantity of presents 
from the emperor to Philip and Mary — costly furs, 
rich skins, and "four living sables with chains and 
collars." 

For a time the four ships kept gallant company. 
Then high winds and storms arose and they were 
separated not to come together again. The "Philip 
and Mary," the "Bona Esperanza," and the "Bona 
Confidentia," were all driven on the coast of Norway 
into "Drenton" waters. The fated ships in which 



Voyages for the Muscovy Company 127 

Willoughby and his associates perished, were both lost 
with their passengers and crews. The "Confidentia" 
was seen to "perish on a rock." The "Philip and 
Mary," finding a snug harbour, was saved to make 
her way back to England nearly a year later. The 
"Bonaventure" continued alone on the voyage buffeted 
by much foul weather. At length, after four long 
months at sea, she also met her fate. At the close of a 
bleak November day she was driven by "outrageous 
tempests" on the north coast of Scotland, and was 
wrecked off Pitsligo, in Aberdeen Bay. Chancellor 
bent all his energies to saving the ambassador. Taking 
him with seven of his "Russes" into the ships' boat he 
made for the shore. But it was now night-time, dark 
and tempestuous, and all of the boat's company were 
lost save the ambassador and a few of the sailors. So 
the brave Chancellor perished at the height of his fame 
and usefulness as a navigator. 

The ambassador thus barely escaping a watery grave 
was compensated with a magnificent reception. He 
was provided with fine raiment of silk and velvet, and 
other furnishings in place of those lost in the wreck 
(which, by the way, was looted by "rude and ravenous" 
people of the neighbourhood), and a band of titled 
Englishmen escorted him from Scotland to London. 
His formal entry into the city was made on a Saturday, 
the last day of February. It was a great spectacle, the 
court and the Muscovy Company combining for to out- 
shine Ivan's receptions of Chancellor. Hakluyt de- 
scribes it under the caption, "A discourse of the hon- 



128 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

ourable receiving into England of the first ambassador 
from the Empire of Russia in the year of Christ 1556" 

(1556/7). 

Met at the outskirts by the "merchants adventuring 

for Russia to the number of one hundred and fortie 
persons, and so many or more servants in one [uniform] 
liverie," he was conducted toward the city, being shown 
on the way a fox hunt, and "such like" English sport. 
Near the north line he was met and embraced by "the 
right honourable Viscount Montague, sent by her 
grace [the queen] for his entertainment." Thence, 
accompanied by "divers lustie knights, esquiers, gen- 
tlemen, and yeomen to the number of three hundred 
horses," he was led to the north parts of the city where 
four "notable merchants richly apparelled" presented 
him a "right faire and large gelding richly trapped, 
together with a foot-cloth of Orient crimson velvet 
enriched with gold laces all finished in most glorious 
fashion." Mounting the beautiful horse he continued 
in formal procession on to "Smithfield barres the first 
limites of the liberties of the citie of London." Here 
the Lord Mayor and all of the aldermen, in blazing 
scarlet, were lined up to receive and join him. Thence 
the gay pageant passed through the city: the ambas- 
sador riding between the Lord Mayor and Viscount 
Montague, "a great number of notable personages 
riding before, and a large troupe of servants and 
apprentices following," throngs of curious people 
"running plentifully on all sides." The procession 
brought up at the lodgings which had been provided for 



Voyages for the Muscovy Company 129 

the guest, the chambers being "richly hanged and 
decked over and above the gallant furniture." 

The ambassador remained in London till early May, 
the recipient of a continuous round of courtesies. He 
was feasted and banquetted "right friendly" at the 
houses of the mayor and of "divers worshipful men;" 
was royally entertained by Philip and Mary at West- 
minster when he presented the emperor's letters; and 
was given a farewell supper, "notably garnished with 
musicke, enterludes, and bankets," by the whole Mus- 
covy Company at the hall of the Drapers' Guild. 
Meanwhile the trade alliance was cemented by a league 
confirmed under the great seal of England, and by 
letters "very tenderly and friendly written" from 
Philip and Mary to Ivan. When at length he took his 
departure from London to return to Russia, a grand 
company of aldermen and merchants escorted him to 
Gravesend where a fine fleet of four "tall ships," the 
"Primrose," the "John Evangelist," the "Anne," and 
the "Trinitie," provided by the Muscovy Company for 
his conveyance, lay in waiting. The leave-takings on 
both sides were most fervent, with "many embrace- 
ments and divers farewells not without expressing of 
teares." 

This fleet, sailing on the twelfth of May, 1557, 
carried cargoes of Engilsh merchandise "apt for Rus- 
sia," besides quantities of goods taken out by the am- 
bassador and his retinue, together with return presents 
from the queen to the emperor, including rare silks and 
velvets, and "two live lions": so that compliment and 



130 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

business were profitably mixed in the voyage. As 
commander of the fleet was Anthony Jenkinson, gen- 
tleman, already favourably known among English 
merchants as a daring traveller in the Levant in the 
interest of commerce, and now, through a succession 
of wonderful travels, to extend the Merchant Adven- 
turers' field of operations into Central Asia. St. 
Nicholas was duly reached in July, where the ambas- 
sador and his train disembarked to take other craft for 
Kholmogro, on the Northern Dwina, southwest of 
Archangel. The fleet went no further, and after dis- 
charging cargoes and relading with Russian stuffs, 
turned back for England, leaving Jenkinson behind to 
see the ambassador safely arrived at Moscow and then 
to start on his new travels into Asia. 

The story of Jenkinson's adventures and their results 
was related in two narratives, both of which Hakluyt 
preserves. The one covers, as its title runs, "The 
voyage wherein Osep Napea the Muscovite Ambas- 
sadour returned home into his Countrey with his enter- 
tainment at his arrival at Colmogro [Kholmogro], and 
a large description of the maners of the Countrey." 
The other is entitled, "The voyage of Master Anthony 
Jenkinson made from the citie of Mosco in Russia to 
the citie of Boghar [Bokhara] in Bactria, in the yeere 
1558, written by himself to the Marchants of London 
of the Muscovie Companie." 

At Moscow he was as graciously received as his 
predecessors had been, and while there he farther 
advanced the interests of the Merchant Adventurers. 



Voyages for the Muscovy Company 131 

He remained in the Russian capital for longer periods 
than Chancellor, and had larger opportunities for ob- 
servation. Hence his delineations supplied richer 
colour. Thus the emperor's "lodging" is pictured: 

"The Emperors lodging is in a faire and large castle, 
walled foure square of bricke, high and thicke, situated 
upon a hill, 2 miles about, and the river on the South- 
west side of it, and it hath 16 gates in the walles & as 
many bulwarks. His palace is separated from the rest 
of the Castle by a long wall going north and south to 
the river side. In his palace are Churches, some of 
stone and some of wood with round towers finely gilded. 
In the Church doores and within the Churches are 
images of golde: the chiefe markets for all things are 
within the sayd Castle, and for sundry things sundry 
markets, and every science by it selfe. And in the 
winter there is a great market without the castle, upon 
the river being frozen, and there is sold corne, earthen 
pots, tubs, sleds, &c." 

Thus, the costume of the " Russe," presumably of 
the higher orders: 

"The Russe is apparalled in this maner: his upper 
garment is of cloth of golde, silke, or cloth, long, 
downe to the foot, and buttoned with great buttons of 
silver, or els [else] laces of silke, set on with brooches, 
the sleeves thereof very long, which he weareth on his 
arme, ruffed up. Under that he hath another long 
garment, buttoned with silke buttons, with a high 
coller standing up of some colour, and that garment is 
made straight. Then his shirt is very fine, and wrought 



132 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

with red silke, or some gold with a coller of pearle. 
Under his shirt he hath linnen breeches upon his legs, 
a paire of hose without feete, and his bootes of red or 
yellow leather. On his head he weareth a white Cole- 
pecke, with buttons of silver, gold, pearle, or stone, 
and under it a blacke Foxe cap, turned up very broad." 

His equipages: 

"The Russe, if he be a man of any abilitie, never 
goeth out of his house in the winter but upon his sled, 
and in summer upon his horse: and in his sled he sits 
upon a carpet, or a white Beares skinne: the sled is 
drawen with a horse well decked, with many Foxes and 
Woolves tails at his necke, & is conducted by a little 
boy upon his backe: his servants stand upon the taile 
of the sled." 

The trappings of the saddle-horse: 

"They use sadles made of wood & sinewes, with 
the tree gilded with damaske worke, & the seat covered 
with cloth, sometimes of golde, and the rest Saphian 
leather well stitched. They use little drummes at their 
sadle bowes, by the sound whereof their horses use to 
runne more swiftly." 

Ways of travelling; 

"In the winter time the people travell with sleds, in 
towne and countrey, the way being hard, and smooth 
with snow: the waters and rivers are all frozen and 
one horse with a sled will draw a man upon it 400 miles 
in three daies: but in the Summer time the way is 
deepe with mire, and travelling is very ill." 

Jenkinson started on his eastern travels from Moscow 



Voyages for the Muscovy Company 133 

in late April, 1558, well furnished with letters from the 
emperor, directed to all kings and princes through 
whose dominions he might pass, soliciting safe conduct 
for him. He was accompanied by two others of the 
Muscovy Company's men — Richard and Robert John- 
son — and a Tartar guide. His ultimate aim was a 
passage to "Cathay" from Russia by way of the Cas- 
pian Sea, and "Boghar" (Bokhara) overland. He 
sailed from Moscow on the Moskva River in a small 
but staunch vessel and carried along with him " divers 
parcels of wares" for barter and trade as he travelled. 
At Nijni-Novgorod, at the junction of the Oka and 
the great Volga rivers, he joined the train of a captain, 
or governor, who had been sent out by the emperor to 
rule at Astrakhan, and who had under his command 
"500 great boates," some laden with soldiers and army 
supplies, others with merchandise. Astrakhan was 
reached in the middle of July. Thence, in early 
August, Jenkinson and his comrades proceeded alone, 
and entered the Caspian Sea, the first of Englishmen 
to plow its waters. Here as they sailed they displayed 
in their flags the "redde crosse of S. George" for 
"honour of the Christians." After weeks of coasting 
along the shores, and much difficult navigation, they 
landed, early in September, "overthwart Manguslave" 
— Mangishlak, in long after times known as Fort 
Novo-Alexandrovsk. Here they joined a caravan of a 
"thousand camels" and entered upon a long overland 
journey, full of adventure and not without peril, by 
way of Khiva to Bokhara. For twenty days they 



134 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery- 
travelled in a "wilderness from the seaside without 
seeing town or habitation." At one time they were 
driven by necessity to eat one of their camels and a 
horse. During the twenty days they found no water 
but such as they drew out of "old deep wells which was 
very brackish and salt." Far along on their way they 
encountered bands of "rovers" (highwaymen), one of 
forty men under a banished prince, and had some 
sharp fighting. 

Bokhara was at length reached two days before 
Christmas. Presenting the emperor's letters to the 
ruler here, Jenkinson was favourably received. Sol- 
diers were sent out after the banished prince's rovers, 
and four being captured they were hanged at the 
palace gate "because they were gentlemen." Jenkin- 
son remained in the city for more than two months, 
keenly observant of men and things. He saw mer- 
chants and caravans from various countries, Persia, 
India, and others, and heard much about routes to 
"Cathay." He would have pressed on to Persia, but 
was prevented by wars. 

He finally left to return to Russia near mid-March, 
and in the nick of time, for ten days after his departure 
Bokhara was besieged. He took back with him, com- 
mitted to his charge, two ambassadors sent by two 
kings to the Russian emperor. Along the way four 
more Tartar ambassadors were added to his train; and 
later he took on twenty-five "Russes" who had been 
for a long time slaves in Tartary. He was back at 
Astrakhan by the last of May. Several small boats 



Voyages for the Muscovy Company 135 

were here prepared, constituting quite a little fleet, to 
go up against the stream of the Volga, and in June the 
last stage of the journey was begun under the protec- 
tion of one hundred gunners provided by the emperor. 
Moscow was reached in early September and Jenkin- 
son's charges safely delivered, for which he was ac- 
corded the honours of a hero. He now tarried in 
Moscow till February, 1560, in the interest of the Mus- 
covy Company. Then he left for Vologhda, and thence 
went to Kholmogro to take passage for home and report 
upon his journeyings, by which the entering wedge for 
English trade with Central Asia had been made. As 
soon as navigation opened he sailed with Stephen 
Borough, the master of the "Edward Bonaventure" on 
the first voyage, then returning from his third voyage 
to the White Sea. 

Stephen Borough was the navigator sailing next 
after Chancellor for the Muscovy Company. In May, 
1556, a year after Chancellor's departure on his second 
and last voyage, Borough was sent out at the head of an 
expedition to discover the harbours in the North coast 
from Norway to "Wardhouse," and to renew the 
search for the Northeast Passage. His ships com- 
prised a pinnace called the "Searchthrift" and a 
smaller vessel. The little company consisted of him- 
self, his brother William Borough, and eight others. 
In this adventure, discovery being the paramount ob- 
ject, Sebastian Cabot was especially interested, and 
"the good old gentleman" was the central figure in the 
farewell scenes at the sailing. When the "Search- 



136 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

thrift" was lying off Gravesend prepared to depart, he 
came aboard with "divers gentlemen and gentlewomen" 
to wish her Godspeed. After his party had inspected 
the ship and "tasted of such cheere" as her company 
could provide, they went ashore distributing as they 
left "right liberal rewards" among the sailors. On 
shore Cabot with a generous hand bestowed alms on 
the poor, asking them to pray for good fortune to the 
expedition. The day finished with a merry dinner and 
dance at "the signe of the Christopher," in which 
Cabot's party and the ship's company joined. At 
these parting festivities Borough pleasantly pictures the 
fine veteran seaman, "for very joy that he had to see 
the towardness of our intended discovery," entering 
into the dance himself "amongst the rest of the young 
and lusty company." But when they were over, "hee 
and his friends departed most gently, commending us 
to the governance of almighty God." 

This was the last public appearance of Cabot, or 
the last of which mention is made in the chronicles, 
although he lived for a year longer. His death oc- 
curred probably in London in 1557, sixty-one years 
after the first commission issued to the Cabots, John 
and his sons, from Henry the seventh. As in the case 
of his father, neither the exact date of his death nor the 
place of his burial is known, and Englishmen and 
Americans alike much regret that no monument marks 
the giaves of these discoverers of our continent of North 
America. 

The record of Borough's voyage is his own account, 




SEBASTIAN CABOT AT ABOUT EIGHTY YEARS OF AGE. 

Reproduced from the engraving in Seyer's "History of Bristol," published in 1823. 
The original painting was attributed to Holbein and was destroyed by fire in 1845. 



Voyages for the Muscovy Company 137 

which Hakluyt gives under the title, " The navigation 
and discoverie toward the river of Ob [Obi] made by 
Master Steven Burrough, master of the Pinnesse called 
the Searchthrift with divers things worth the noting, 
passed in the yere 1556." The outcome of it was the 
discovery of the strait between Nova Zembla and the 
island of Waigats leading to the Kara Sea, which en- 
trance was given the discoverer's name as Burrough's 
Strait. While Borough did not get to the Obi, ad- 
verse winds and the lateness of the season preventing 
(off Waigats snow was being shovelled from the "Search- 
thrift" in August), he was the first Western European 
to reach the southern extremity of Nova Zembla, and 
the first to put "Vaigats" on the map. Turning at 
the new-found strait he worked his way back to the 
White Sea and wintered at Kholmogro. In the follow- 
ing May he set sail again to seek the three missing 
ships which had left St. Nicholas with Chancellor and 
the Russian ambassador the year before. After a 
search of the coast of Lapland, and a call at "Ward- 
house" without result, he was returning to Kholmogro, 
when calling at Fisher Island, or Ribachi, ofF Point 
Kegor, in Russian Finland, he learned their fate from 
Dutch traders there. 

Of this supplementary voyage Borough also wrote a 
detailed account, with mention of other "divers things" 
worth noting. Hakluyt reproduces this account as 
"The voyage of the foresaid M. Stephen Burrough, 
An. 1557, from Colmogro to Wardhouse, which was 
sent to seeke the Bona Esperanza, the Bona Confiden- 



138 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

tia, and the Philip and Mary, which were not heard of 
the yeere before." Constantly observant, Borough 
made various practical business notes along the way. 
At Fisher Island he found Dutchmen with Norwegian 
ships trading prosperously with the Lapps, giving 
"mighty strong" beer in exchange for stock-fish. Upon 
which he shrewdly comments: "I am certaine that our 
English double beere would not be liked by the Kerils 
and Lappians as long as that would last." He arrived 
back in England in the summer of 1557. 

The next year Borough visited Spain, where he re- 
ceived much attention for his part in the discovery of 
" Moscovie," as Hakluyt related in the "Epistle Ded- 
icatorie" of his Divers Voyages: "Master Steven Bor- 
rows, now one of the foure masters of the Queens nauie, 
tolde me that, newely after his returne from the dis- 
couerie of Moscovie by the North in Queene Maries 
[Mary's] daies, the Spaniards having intelligence that 
he was master in that discouerie tooke him into their 
contractation house [in Seville] at their making and ad- 
mitting of masters and pdots giving him great honour, 
and presented him with a payre [pair] of perfumed 
gloves woorth five or six Ducates." 

His third voyage, of 1560, on the return of which he 
brought Anthony Jenkinson home, was the seventh 
despatched by the Muscovy Company, and was purely 
commercial. It was made with a fleet of three "good 
ships" — the "Swallow," the "Philip and Mary," and 
the "Jesus" — freighted with English goods, bound for 
St. Nicholas. Of the "Swallow's" cargo were pipes of 



Voyages for the Muscovy Company 139 

"seeker" (sherry), one of which, marked with "2 
round compasses upon the bung," was intended as a 
present for the emperor, "for it" was "special good." 
This voyage was successful throughout, and it was 
remarked as the first of the seven for the Muscovy 
Company which got safely back to the home port 
"without loss, or shipwreck, or dead freight." Such 
was the hazard of seafaring with the rude ships of 
that day in the cruel Northern seas. 

In May of the next year, 1561, Borough again sailed 
with the "Swallow" and two other ships for St. Nich- 
olas, this time taking out Jenkinson as ambassador to 
Persia, under the patronage of the queen — now Eliza- 
beth — and also still representing the Muscovy Com- 
pany, to make another expedition into the Transcaspian 
region, and to establish commercial relations with 
Persia. This is supposed to have been Borough's last 
voyage to Russia. At the opening of 1563 he was 
appointed chief pilot and one of the four masters of 
the queen's navy, which post he was holding, as we 
have seen, when Hakluyt published the Divers Voy- 
ages. He died in his sixtieth year, in 1584. 

Anthony Jenkinson's second Transcaspian expedi- 
tion was in some respects more wonderful than his 
previous travels, and his account of it, given in "A 
compendious and briefe declaration" to the Muscovy 
Company fills several of the large pages of the Prin- 
cipal Navigations. A summary, however, appears in 
a subsequent paper, rehearsing all of his travels from 
his first voyage out of England in 1546. The salient 



140 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

points are to be gathered from the two. Starting from 
Moscow in March, 1562, some months after his arrival 
out, having been detained there by one cause and 
another, he passed over his former route to the Caspian 
Sea; sailed the Caspian to Derbent, or Derbend, then 
an Armenian city belonging to Persia, on the western 
shore; thence travelled overland through Media, 
Pathia, Hercania, into Persia, finally bringing up at 
the court of the "Great Sophy called Shaw Tamossa," 
where he remained for eight months. Along the way 
he generously scattered presents with which he had 
been provided for distribution among the "kings, 
princes, and governors" whom he might meet; and at 
the great shah's court he delivered a letter he bore from 
the queen to the shah, a flattering missive explaining 
his mission as solely commercial. At length, after 
much maneuvering, he obtained from "Obdolowcan, 
king of Hircania" — Abdullah Khan, king of Shirvan — 
the sought-for trade privileges, which led to the open- 
ing of the rich trade centering in Persia to the English 
merchants. After encountering varied perils and con- 
gratulating himself upon getting away alive, in the dis- 
turbed relations then existing between Persia and 
Turkey, he arrived safely back at Moscow in August, 

1563. There he remained through the following win- 
ter, preparing for a second expedition to Persia for 
trading purposes, meanwhile sending one of his com- 
panions, Edward Clarke, overland to England with 
letters reporting the result of his mission. In May, 

1564, the second expedition was started off under 



Voyages for the Muscovy Company 141 

three of his associates, employees of the Muscovy Com- 
pany, while he himself returned to England, reaching 
London in September. 

In the spring of 1565 Jenkinson is found in associa- 
tion with Humphrey Gilbert presenting to Queen 
Elizabeth a memorial on the subject of the Northeast 
Passage, and offering to take charge of an expedition 
to attempt its discovery. Nothing, however, came of 
this petition, the queen finding other service for both 
petitioners. Jenkinson was appointed to the com- 
mand of her ship "Aid" the following September, with 
instructions to cruise on the coast of Scotland to pre- 
vent a landing of the Earl of Bothwell, and to clear the 
sea of pirates. 

In 1566 the Muscovy Company, in consequence of 
encroachments by various traders upon their monopoly, 
were reincorporated by the queen's act and under a 
new name — the "Fellowship of English Merchants" — 
with authority to continue the "discovery of new 
trades." Then Jenkinson made another voyage to 
Russia and secured the monopoly of the White Sea 
trade for the reorganized company. Trade voyages 
also followed annually to Persia by various navigators 
for the company. In the summer of 1571 Jenkinson, 
again as the queen's ambassador, was in Russia, having 
been sent to appease the emperor, who, incensed at 
the failure of overtures made by him for an alliance 
with England by which each would assist the other in 
its wars, had annulled the Fellowship's privileges and 
confiscated their property. Although upon his arrival 



142 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

at St. Nicholas being told that Ivan had threatened to 
take his head if he should venture into the country, he 
boldly sought the irate czar, and finally succeeded in 
bringing him round to a renewal of the privileges. 

This was Jenkinson's last voyage. He had accom- 
plished much in enlarging the geographical knowledge 
of his time. He next appears as an associate in new 
ventures for discovery to the Westward, attention now 
being again directed to the Northwest Passage and to 
the North American continent. 









K 














XII 

REVIVAL OF THE NORTHWEST THEORY 

TO Humphrey Gilbert belongs the credit for so 
reviving the Northwest Passage theory as to 
turn the thoughts of English merchants and 
statesmen to adventure and to colonization in America; 
while Martin Frobisher was the first English navigator 
fairly to begin the Northwest explorations. 

Gilbert, born in 1539, in the county of Devon, was 
the son of a country gentleman, half-brother of Walter 
Raleigh, on the mother's side, an Eton schoolboy and 
an Oxford man, bred to the law, but taking instead to 
adventure. When a soldier in Ireland, in 1566-1567, 
a captain under Sir Henry Sidney against the Irish 
rebellion, his mind was busied with speculation on 
cosmography; and in the latter year, being sent home 
with despatches by Sidney, he took occasion to present 
to Queen Elizabeth, whose favour he enjoyed, a peti- 
tion for privileges "concerning the discoverings of a 
passage by the North to go to Cathaie." This, it is said, 
was an alternative to the earlier memorial of Anthony 
Jenkinson and himself for royal patronage to a new 
expedition of discovery by the Northeast. Both peti- 
tions lay unanswered, and he returned to soldiering. 

143 



144 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

In 1570 he was knighted for his services in Ireland, the 
previous year having been given the government of 
Mlinster. In 1571, back in England, he was a member 
of Parliament for Plymouth. The next year he was 
fighting in the Netherlands, the first colonel in com- 
mand of English forces there. Returned again to 
England, he temporarily retired to country-life at Lime- 
house, employing his leisure in further geographical 
investigations and in writing a learned Discourse of a 
Discovery for a New Passage to Cathaia, partly, it is 
assumed, in support of his petition still before the 
queen. One day in the winter of 1574 he showed the 
manuscript of the Discourse to his friend George Gas- 
coigne, one of the pioneer Elizabethan poets, who 
afterward edited and published it. Meanwhile it led 
to the granting of a license by the Fellowship of English 
Merchants, in 1575, to Martin Frobisher with "divers 
gentlemen," out of which grew Frobisher's Northwest 
voyage. 

Martin Frobisher was of Welsh origin, but of Eng- 
lish birth, born in Yorkshire in about 1535. He was 
now a thoroughly seasoned mariner, having followed 
the sea from his nineteenth year, going out for a decade 
in yearly voyages of merchant ships sent to Africa or 
the Levant by Sir John and Thomas Lock; and after- 
ward employed in the queen's service, in 157 1 off Ire- 
land. He had before this time become "thoroughly 
furnished of the knowledge of the sphere and all other 
skilles appertaining to the arte of navigation," as the 
historian of his voyages, George Best, assures us, and 




s — 5 ~~~"^ (J ""*' —J- 



MARTIN FROBISHER. 



Revival of the Northwest Theory 145 

as early as 1560 he had conceived a project for dis- 
covery of the short route by the Northwest to "Cathay" 
and the Indies, and had begun looking about for sup- 
port for it. During the next fifteen years he schemed 
to this end, conferring with his "private friends of these 
secrets," importuning members of the Fellowship of 
English Merchants to back him, soliciting men of estate 
and title, and even the court. But he met little encour- 
agement till his public service in Ireland had brought 
him under the favourable notice of the queen and the 
attention of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. At length toward 
the close of 1574 the queen, moved apparently by Sir 
Humphrey's Discourse, still in manuscript, addressed a 
letter to the Fellowship of English Merchants calling 
upon them either to despatch an expedition to the 
Northwest or transfer their privileges in that direction 
to other adventurers: and sent this pregnant message 
by the hand of Frobisher. The result was the issue, 
February, 1575, of their license for his first voyage. 

Gilbert's Discourse is given by Hakluyt presumably 
as published by Gascoigne, in 1576, but with his own 
caption: "A Discourse written by Sir Humfrey Gilbert 
Knight, to prove a passage by the Northwest to Cathaia 
and the East Indies." It is an essay in ten chapters 
displaying not a little erudition and mastery of his 
subject. The chapter-heads show its trend: "I. To 
prove by authoritie a passage to be on the North side of 
America to go to Cathaia, China, and to the East India. 
2. To prove by reason a passage to be on the North side 
of America to go to Cathaia, Molucae &c. 3. To prove 



146 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

by experience of sundry mens travailes [travels] the 
opening of this Northwest passage, whereby good hope 
remaineth of the rest. 4. To prove by circumstance 
that the Northwest passage has been sailed throughout. 
5. To proove that such Indians as have bene driven 
upon the coastes of Germanie came not thither by the 
Southeast, and Southwest, nor from any part of Afrike 
or America. 6. To proove that the Indians afore- 
named came not from the Northeast; and that there 
is no thorow [through] passage navigable that way. 7. 
To prove that these Indians came by the Northwest 
which induceth a certaintie of this passage by ex- 
perience. 8. What several reasons were alleaged be- 
fore the Queens Majestie, and certaine Lords of her 
Highnesse privie Council by M. Anth. Jenkinson a 
Gentleman of great travaile and experience, to prove 
this passage by the Northeast, with my severall an- 
sweres then alleaged to the same. 9. How that this 
passage by the Northwest is more commodious for our 
traffike then [than] the other by the Northeast, if 
there were any such. 10. What commodities would 
ensue, this passage being once discovered." 

The quaint opening paragraph expresses succinctly 
his theory and the steps by which he had reached it: 
"When I gave my selfe to the studie of Geographie, 
after I had perused and diligently scanned the de- 
scriptions of Europe, Asia, and Afrike, and conferred 
them with the Mappes and Globe, both Antique and 
Moderne: I came in fine to the fourth part of the world, 
commonly called America, which by all descriptions I 



Revival of the Northwest Theory 147 

found to bee an Island environed round about with Sea, 
having on the Southeside of it the frete or straight of 
Magellan, on the West side Mar del Sur, which sea 
runneth towards the North, separating it from the East 
parts of Asia, where the Dominions of the Cathaians 
are: on the East part an West Ocean, and on the North 
side the sea that severeth it from Groneland [Green- 
land] thorow which Northren Sea the Passage lyeth, 
which I take now in hand to discover." 

In the concluding paragraph we have an exhibition 
of Sir Humphrey's highmindedness and his chivalrous 
devotion of himself to his country: "Desiring you 
hereafter never to mislike with me for the taking in 
hande of any laudable and honest enterprise: for if 
through pleasure or idleness we purchase shame the 
pleasure vanisheth, but the shame remaineth forever. 
And therefore to give me leave without offence, always 
to live and die in this mind, That he is not worthy to 
live at all that for feare, or danger of death, shunneth 
his countries service and his owne honour: seeing 
death is inevitable, and the fame of vertue immortall. 
Wherefore in this behalfe, Mutare vel timere sperno." 

Frobisher's initial voyage was financed, in the lan- 
guage of to-day, principally by Ambrose Dudley, Earl 
of Warwick. The total amount subscribed for the 
venture was but eight hundred and seventy-five pounds. 
Two small barks, the "Gabriel," of twenty-five tons, 
and the "Michael" of twenty tons, with a pinnace of 
ten tons, were furnished, and provisioned for ten 
months. The company were small but well selected. 



148 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Christopher Hall, the master of the "Gabriel," and 
Frobisher's right hand, was an experienced mariner in 
the Northern seas, and had presumably sailed with 
Frobisher in one or another of his eastern voyages. 
Among his charts Frobisher is supposed to have in- 
cluded the Zeno map, delineating the fourteenth cen- 
tury discoveries of the Venetian brothers Zeno, then 
comparatively new, having been brought to light in 
Italy in 1558. 

The tiny fleet set sail from Ratcliffe on the seventh 
of June (1576), but at Detford came to anchor, the 
pinnace having "burst" her "boultsprit" and fore- 
mast, in coming against a ship that was riding there. 
The next day making a fresh start they bore down on 
Greenwich, where the court yet was. Here, as a 
quarter of a century before the Willoughby-Chancellor 
fleet had done when passing out by the boy king's 
court, they made the "best shew" they could by shoot- 
ing off their ordnance, while Queen Elizabeth waved 
her hand from a window in affectionate farewell. 
Afterward the queen sent one of her courtiers aboard 
the "Gabriel" with a message declaring her "good 
liking for our doings," and summoning Frobisher to 
the court to take personal leave of her. The same day 
— the narrator is Christopher Hall — " towards night, M. 
Secretarie Woolly came aboord of us and declared to 
the company that her Majesty had appointed him to 
give them charge to be obedient and diligent to their 
Captaine and governors in all things, and wished us 
happie successe." 



Revival of the Northwest Theory 149 

Accounts of this voyage were written in terse sailor 
fashion by Christopher Hall, and with more detail and 
colour by George Best, the historian of all of Frobish- 
er's Northwest expeditions. Hakluyt gives the text of 
both. Hall's appears under this title: "The first 
Voyage of M. Martine Frobisher to the Northwest for 
the search of the straight or passage to China, written 
by Christopher Hall, Master in the Gabriel, and made 
in the yeere of our Lord 1576." Best's is an extended 
monograph thus entitled: "A true Discourse of the 
three Voyages of Discoverie, for the finding of a passage 
to Cathaya, by the Northwest, under the conduct of 
Martin Frobisher Generall: Before which, as a neces- 
sary preface, is prefixed a two-folde discourse, con- 
teining certaine reasons to prove all partes of the World 
habitable. Penned by Master George Best, a Gen- 
tleman employed in the same voyages." 

From these two narrations, the one supplying details 
omitted by the other, the full graphic story is to be 
drawn. 



XIII 

FROBISHER IN ARCTIC AMERICA 

IT was the first of July before the fleet was clear of 
the coast of England. Eleven days later new land 
was sighted "rising like pinnacles of steeples, and 
all covered with snowe," as Hall, with almost a poet's 
touch, described. This Frobisher and his companion 
navigators agreed must be the "Friesland" of the 
brothers Zeno as laid down in the Zeno chart. It was, 
in fact, Cape Farewell, the southern point of Green- 
land. They sailed toward the shore, and Frobisher 
with four men in his shipboat strove to make a landing, 
but was prevented by the accumulation of ice about it. 
Leaving this coast and taking now a southwestward 
course they voyaged on through the trackless sea till 
the twenty-eighth of July, when they had their next 
sight of land, which Hall supposed to be Labrador. 
Meanwhile between the two points — Greenland and 
the supposed Labrador — there had been some pretty 
serious happenings to the voyagers during storms; and 
only those on Frobisher's ship, the "Gabriel,'' saw the 
new land, for the "Michael" had early deserted. We 
must turn to Best for this part of the story. 

"Not far from thence [Greenland] hee [Frobisher] 

IS" 



Frobisher in Arctic America 151 

lost compnye of his small pinnesse which by meanes of 
the great storme he supposed to be swallowed uppe of 
the sea, wherein he lost onely foure men. Also the 
other barke named The Michael mistrusting the mat- 
ter, conveyed themselves privily away from him, and 
retourned home, wyth great reporte that he was cast 
awaye." His own ship, too, had sprung her mast, and 
the top-mast had blown overboard in "extreme foule 
weather." Yet, notwithstanding these "discomforts," 
the "worthy captaine" continued steadily on his course, 
"knowing that the sea at length must needs have an 
ending and that some land should have a beginning 
that way: and determined therefore at the least to 
bring true proofe what land and sea the same might be 
so far to the Northwestwards beyond any man that 
hath heretofore discovered." 

The new land sighted was a promontory of an island 
off the main above Labrador: the present Cape Resolu- 
tion of Resolution Island, about the north entrance to 
Hudson's Strait. Being his first discovery Frobisher 
loyally bestowed upon the promontory his sovereign's 
name, calling it "Queen Elizabeth's Foreland." So 
environed was it by ice that the shore could not be 
reached. Hall tells of efforts made the next day un- 
successfully to find a harbour, for all the sound was 
filled with ice. Then they sailed northeasterly, follow- 
ing the coast, and early the next morning another head- 
land was descried. Approaching, they found this to 
be a "foreland" with (it is now Best's relation) a "great 
gut, bay, or passage, divided as it were two maine 



152 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

lands or continents asunder." The gut was what we 
now know as Frobisher's Bay. Believed to be a strait, 
and of great possibilities, it was so named for the dis- 
coverer — " Frobisher's Straits." 

Hereabouts was also a " store of exceeding great ice," 
which kept them off this shore. Nor for a while was it 
possible to make further headway, contrary winds de- 
taining them "overthwart" the supposed straits. 
Within a few days, however, the ice largely cleared, 
"either there ingulfed in by some swift currents or in- 
drafts, carried more to the Southward, ... or els con- 
veyed some other way," and entrance was effected. 
Thereupon Frobisher proceeded to explore this water, 
having high hopes that he "might carry himself through 
it into some open sea on the back side." He pene- 
trated it for "above fifty leagues," having on either 
hand, as he believed, "a great maine or continent." 
As he sailed westward "that land upon his right 
hand ... he judged to be the continent of Asia, and 
there to be divided from the firme [land] of America 
which lieth upon the left hand over against the same." 

When he had sailed thus far a landing was made on 
an island — "Burchers," as Hall names it — and meet- 
ings were had with the people. Hall relates this ad- 
venture with a description of the natives: 

"The 19 day [August] in the morning, being calme, 
and no winde, the Captaine and I took our boate, with 
eight men in her, to rowe us ashore, to see if there were 
there any people or no, and going to the toppe of the 
island we had sight of seven boates, which came rowing 



Frobisher in Arctic America 153 

from the East side toward that Island: whereupon we 
returned aboord again: at length we sent our boate with 
five men in her, to see whither they rowed, and so with 
a white cloth brought one of their boates with their men 
along the shoare, rowing after our boat till such time as 
they saw our ship, and then they rowed ashore: then I 
went on shoare my selfe, and gave every of them a 
threadden point, and brought one of them aboord of 
me, where hee did eate and drinke, and then carried 
him ashore againe. Whereupon all the rest came 
aboord with their boates, being nineteen persons, and 
they spake, but we understood them not. They bee 
the Tartars, with long blacke haire, broad faces, and 
flatte noses, and tawnie in colour, wearing Seale 
skinnes, and so doe the women, not differing in the 
fashion, but the women are marked in the face with 
blewe [blue] streekes [streaks] downe the cheekes, and 
round about the eyes. Their boates are made of Seales 
skinnes, with a keel of wood within the skin: the pro- 
portion of them is like a Spanish shallop, save only 
they be flat in the bottome and sharpe at both ends." 

Here we have the first description of the Eskimo, or 
the Northwest American coast Indian. 

The next day the "Gabriel" was sailed to the east 
side of this island and Hall with the captain and four 
men again went ashore and had parleys with the 
natives here. One was enticed into their boat and 
taken to the ship, where he was given some trinkets. 
Then he was sent back in the charge of five of the 
sailors with instructions to land him at a rock ofF the 



154 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

shore. But the "wilfulness" of these sailors was such 
that they would go on to the shore and mingle with the 
people. So they were captured together with their 
boat; and neither boat nor men were ever after seen. 
Some of the natives, whose curiosity at length got the 
better of their caution, visited the ship and made 
friends with the company. They entertained their 
hosts with exhibitions of their agility, trying "many 
masteries upon the ropes of the ship after our mariners 
fashion, and appeared to be very strong of their armes 
and nimble of their bodies." (Best's relation.) They 
bartered seal and bearskin coats for bells, looking- 
glasses and toys, much pleased with their bargains. 
Repeated attempts were made by Frobisher to secure 
one or more of them to take back to England as "a 
token" of his having been in these regions. But all 
his exertions were foiled by their wariness till he re- 
sorted to a "pretty policie." This was to decoy a 
group by ringing toy bells, then throwing the bells one 
by one into the water for them to scramble for, at each 
throw shortening the distance from the ship. One, in 
his eagerness, paddled close to the ship, when he was 
grabbed and hauled aboard with his boat. So angered 
was the poor fellow at his capture that "he bit his 
tongue in twain in his mouth." Nevertheless, he 
survived till the return of the voyagers to England, but 
shortly after he died miserably "of a cold which he 
had taken at sea." 

With this living witness of his "farre and tedious 
travels towards the unknowen partes of the world" 



Frobisher in Arctic America 155 

(Best's relation), and with other "tokens" which his 
companions had collected in their essays ashore — some 
bringing "floures [flowers], some greene grasse, and 
one ... a piece of blacke stone much like to a sea cole 
[coal] in colour which by the weight seemed to be some 
kinde of metall or minerall" — Frobisher turned his 
ship's prow homeward at the end of August. Mean- 
while, he had taken formal possession of the region 
round about the "straits," in the name of the queen of 
England, who afterward dubbed it "Meta Incognita." 
The name is still seen on modern maps, confined to 
the point of Baffin Land between Frobisher's Bay and 
Hudson Strait. 

The homeward voyage was without incident, beyond 
perils encountered in fierce storms, in one of which, as 
Hall relates, a sailor was "blowen into the sea," and in 
his flight catching hold of the foresail was there held 
till the captain "plucked him again into the ship." 
They arrived in late September, and anchoring first at 
Yarmouth came to port at Harwich, October second. 

Frobisher immediately repaired to London with his 
report and his "tokens." There he became the hero 
of the hour, being "highly commended of all men for 
his great and notable attempt, but specially famous 
for the great hope he brought of the passage to Cataya." 
The captured native, too — "this strange infidell," as 
Best wrote, "whose like was never seene, read, nor 
heard of before, and whose language was neither 
knowen nor understood of any" — must have been 
gazed upon with awe. 



156 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

But the bit of "blacke stone," brought as a novelty 
only, and deemed by the captain of no account except as 
a souvenir, proved to be the "token" of greatest import, 
since, quite by accident, it became an instrument that 
practically transformed the Frobisher project from its 
original design into a fervid speculative enterprise. 

Best tells how this came about: "After his [Frobish- 
er's] arrival in London being demanded of sundry of 
his friends what thing he had brought them home out 
of that countrey, he had nothing left to present them 
withall but a piece of this blacke stone. And it for- 
tuned that a gentlewoman one of the adventurers wives 
to have a piece thereof, which by chance she threw and 
burned in the fire, so long that at length being taken 
forth, and quenched in a little vinegar, it glistened with 
a bright merquesset of golde. Whereupon the matter 
being called in some question, it was brought to certain 
Goldfiners in London to make assay thereof, who gave 
out that it held golde, and that very richly for the 
quantity. Afterwards the same Goldfiners promised 
great matters thereof if there were any store to be 
found, and offered themselves to adventure for the 
searching of those parts from whence the same was 
brought. Some that had great hope of the matter 
sought secretly to have a lease at her Majesties hands 
of those places, whereby to injoy the masse of so great 
a publike profit unto their owne private gaines. In 
conclusion, the hope of more of the same golde ore to 
be found kindled a greater opinion in the hearts of 
many to advance the voyage againe." 



Frobisher in Arctic America 157 

Thereupon "preparation was made for a new voyage 
against the yere following, and the captaine more 
specially directed by commission for the searching more 
of this golde ore then [than] for the searching any 
further discovery of the passage. And being well 
accompanied with divers resolute and forward gentle- 
men, her Majesty then lying at the right honourable 
the lord of Warwicks house in Essex, he came to take 
his leave, and kissing her highnesses hands, with 
gracious countenance & comfortable words departed 
towards his charge.' 

Under such auspices this second voyage was organ- 
ized liberally. The queen invested in the venture, 
together with members of the privy council; and 
among other subscribers were the Countess of War- 
wick, the Earl and Countess of Pembroke, Lord Charles 
Howard, Michael Lok, Anthony Jenkinson, and young 
Philip Sidney. The total amount subscribed was 
fifty-one hundred and fifty pounds. A charter was 
issued for the "Company of Cathay," with privileges 
similar to the old Muscovy Company, in which Michael 
Lok, "mercer," of London, was named as governor, 
and Frobisher captain-general of their navy and high 
admiral of "all seas and waters, countreys, landes, and 
iles, as well as of Kathai [Cathay] as of all other coun- 
tryes and places of new dyscovery." The queen pro- 
vided one of her large ships, the "Ayde," of two hun- 
dred tons, to serve as the "admiral" of the fleet, the 
other vessels being the two barks which had started out 
on the first voyage, the "Gabriel" and the "Michael" 



158 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

(now recorded as of "about thirty ton apiece"). Fro- 
bisher was placed at the head as "captain-general of 
the whole company for her majesty"; George Best 
was appointed lieutenant; and Richard Philpot, en- 
sign. Christopher Hall was made the master of the 
"Ayde"; Edward Fenton, "a gentleman of my Lady 
Warwicks," captain of the "Gabriel," with William 
Smyth, master; Gilbert Yorke, "a gentleman of my 
Lord Admirals" [Howard], captain and James Beare 
master of the "Michael." At the start the company 
comprised one hundred and forty-three persons, made 
up of thirty-six officers and gentlemen, fourteen miners 
and "goldfiners," and the remainder soldiers and 
sailors. Of this number the "Ayde" accommodated, 
with the captain-general and his staff, one hundred. 
The ships were fully appointed with munitions, and 
were provisioned for a half year. 

Hakluyt gives two accounts also of this voyage, and, 
as in the case of the first one, the whole animated story 
of it is to be gleaned from the two. They comprise the 
narratives of Dionysus Settle and of George Best, that 
of the latter being the second chapter of his True 
Discourse. They are presented under the following 
titles, respectively: "The second voyage of Master 
Martin Frobisher, made to the West and Northwest 
Regions, in the yeere 1577, with a description of the 
Countrey and people: Written by Master Dionise 
Settle," and "A true report of such things as happened 
in the second voyage of captaine Frobisher, pretended 
for the discovery of a new passage to Cataya, China, 



Frobisher in Arctic America 159 

and the East India by the Northwest Ann. Dom. 1577." 
Both narrators were active members of Frobisher's 
company throughout the voyage. 

Best, furnishing a description of the spirited scenes 
at the departure, properly begins the story. 

All things being in readiness, "the sayd captaine 
Frobisher, with the rest of his company, came aboord 
his ships riding at Blackwall intending (with Gods 
helpe) to take the first winde and tide serving him, the 
25 day of May, in the yere of our Lord God 1577. . . • 
On Whitsunday being the 26 of May . . . early in the 
morning, we weighed anker at Blackwall, and fell that 
tyde down to Gravesend, where we remained untill 
Monday at night. On Munday morning the 27 May, 
aboord the Ayde we received all the Communion by 
the Minister of Gravesend, and prepared us as good 
Christians towards God, and resolute men for all fort- 
unes: and towards night we departed to Tilbery Hope. 
Tuesday the eight and twenty of May, about nine of 
the clocke, at night, we arrived at Harwitch in Essex 
and there stayed for the taking in of certaine victuals, 
untill Friday being the thirtieth of May, during which 
time came letters from the Lordes of the Councell, 
straightly commanding our Generall not to exceed 
his complement and number appointed him, which was 
one hundred and twentie persons: whereupon he dis- 
charged many proper men which with unwilling mindes 
departed. He also dismissed all his condemned men 
[men from the prisons who had been incarcerated for 
petty crimes] which he thought for some purposes very 



160 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

needfull for the voyage, and towards night upon Friday 
the one and thirtieth of May we set saile and put to the 
Seas again." 

Sailing with a "merrie wind," on the seventh of June 
they reached the Orkneys and put in at one of them 
for a supply of fresh water, greatly frightening the 
islanders at their appearance, who thought them 
pirates. Here they tarried for a day, the gentlemen 
and soldiers being permitted to go ashore for their 
recreation. Again at sea, they shortly met three Eng- 
lish fisher ships homeward bound from Iceland, and 
they improved this opportunity to send letters home to 
England. After twenty-six days without sight of land 
they came, on the fourth of July, "within the making 
of Friesland." Ten or twelve leagues from the Green- 
land shore they encountered huge icebergs, "great 
Islands of yce, of halfe a mile, some more, some lesse 
in compasse, showing above the sea 30 or 40 fathoms." 

About Greenland, Settle shiveringly remarked that 
"in place of odoriferous and fragrant smels of sweete 
gums & pleasant notes of musicall birdes which other 
Countreys in more temperate zones do yeeld," they 
"tasted the most boisterous Boreal blasts mixt with 
snow and haile in June and July." But Best found it 
more cheery despite the Boreal blasts. As he ob- 
served, "for so much of this land as we have sailed 
alongst comparing their [the brothers Zeno's] carde on 
the coast, we finde it very agreeable." One day when 
they lay becalmed they did a little fishing, and Best 
spins this fine fish yarn: "We ... let fall a hooke 



Frobisher in Arctic America 161 

without any bayte [bait] and presently caught a great 
fish called a Hollibut who served the whole companie 
for a day's meale." As on his first voyage, Frobisher 
made several attempts with his shipboat to get ashore, 
but could not overcome the bulwarks of ice. 

Four days and nights were spent in coasting Green- 
land, and then the fleet struck out on the last stage of 
the voyage. On the way they ran into a great storm 
in which the "Michael" had her topmast blown over- 
board, and the other ships were hard strained. On 
the sixteenth of July "Queen Elizabeth's Foreland" 
was sighted: and the next day the "North Foreland" 
or "Hall's Island" (named for Christopher Hall), 
"near-adjacent" to the place where the ore had been 
found on the first voyage. Here both chroniclers as- 
sumed — accepting Frobisher's theory — that they were 
come between the two "forelands," near by "the sup- 
posed continent of America" on the one side and the 
"supposed continent of Asia" on the other and at the 
opening of the "straits" to the real "passage." 

Now Frobisher hastened off with the goldfiners for a 
prospecting trip on the island where the ore was first 
taken up, while the ships sought a harbour. As Set- 
tle's account proceeds: "At our first comming the 
streights seemed to be shut up with a long mure [wall] 
of yce which gave no little cause of discomfort unto us 
all : but our Generall . . . with two little Pinnesses pre- 
pared of purpose passed twice thorow [through] them 
to the East shore and the Islands thereto adjacent." 
Best relates the mournful outcome of this prospecting: 



1 62 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

"He could not get in all that Hand a peece so big as a 
Walnut, where the first was found." Some of his band, 
however, who sought other islands thereabouts had 
better luck, for they were found " all to have good store 
of ore." With these good tidings he returned to his 
ship "about tenne of the clocke at night, and was joy- 
fully welcomed by the companie with a volie of shot." 

Early the next morning Frobisher again started out 
with a larger party, forty "gentlemen and souldiers," 
for further prospecting, and also to find a fit harbour 
for the ships; and this day, on the summit of a snow- 
capped hill, a dramatic scene was enacted, with the 
taking possession of the country for England, and a 
service of thanksgiving, all kneeling in a circle about 
the English ensign. Best was of this party, and his 
relation alone describes these pious ceremonies on the 
lonely hill-top. 

"Passing towardes the shoare with no small diffi- 
cultie by reason of the abundance of yce which lay 
alongst the coast so thicke togither that hardly any 
passage through them might be discovered, we arrived 
at length upon the maine of Halles greate Hand, and 
found there also as well as in the other small Hands good 
store of the Ore. And leaving his boates here with 
sufficient guardes we passed up into the countrey about 
two English miles, and recovered the toppe of a high 
hill, on the top whereof our men made a Columne or 
Crosse of stones heaped up of a good height togither in 
good sort, and solemnly sounded a Trumpet, and said 
certaine prayers kneeling about the Ensigne, and 



Frobisher in Arctic America 163 

honoured the place by the name of Mount Warwicke, 
in remembrance of the Right Honourable the Lord 
Ambrose Dudley Earle of Warwick, whose noble mind 
and good countenance in this, as in all other good ac- 
tions, gave great encouragement and good furtherance. 
This done we retyred our companies not seeing any- 
thing here worth further discoverie, the countrey seem- 
ing barren and full of rugged mountaines and in most 
parts covered with snow." 

No natives were seen during these performances. 
But as the party were marching toward their boats, 
their flag at their head swaying in the Arctic summer 
breeze, hearing strange noises like the "mowing of 
bulls," and looking back, they espied a group on the 
summit of Mount Warwick earnestly signalling them. 
Frobisher, understanding this peculiar cry as a call of 
invitation for a meeting, answered with like cries, and 
also caused a trumpeter to sound his horn. Whereat 
"they seemed greatly to rejoice, skipping, laughing, 
and dancing for joy." Then signs were made to them, 
two fingers being held up, signifying that two of the 
English company would meet two of theirs, in the open, 
apart from both companies; and by other signs it was 
conditioned that each couple should be without weapons. 
The proposal was accepted, and the meeting held with 
much show of friendliness on both sides. Trifling 
presents were exchanged, and the companies were cor- 
dially invited to visit each other. The natives would 
have the Englishmen "goe up into their countrey," 
while the Englishmen offered the natives "like kind- 



164 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

nesses" aboard their ships. But evidently neither "ad- 
mitted or trusted the others courtesie." 

The day being now nearly spent, the Englishmen 
abruptly broke off the palavering and resumed the 
march to their boats. The whole body of natives fol- 
lowed at a safe ditsance, with "great tokens of affec- 
tion" entreating them to remain. When near the 
boats Frobisher and Hall turned back, and meeting 
two representatives as before again "went apart" with 
this couple. Their intention was, under cover of 
further confab, to seize these two unawares and carry 
them to the "Ayde." A lively tussle ensued, closing 
with the successful performance of a "Cornish trick" 
by one of the company, who came to the captain's 
assistance at a critical moment. The performer was 
a Cornishman renowned among his fellows as a 
wrestler: 

"The Generall and his Maister being met with their 
two companions togither after they had exchanged 
certaine things the one with the other, one of the Sal- 
vages [savages] for lacke of better merchandise cut off 
the tayle of his coat (which is a chief ornament among 
them) and gave it unto our Generall as a present. But 
he [the general] presently upon a watchword given with 
his Maister, sodainely [suddenly] laid hold upon the 
two Salvages. But the ground underfoot being slip- 
perie with the snow on the side of the hill, their hand- 
fast fayled and their prey escaping ranne away and 
lightly recovered their bow and arrowes, which they 
had hid not farre from them behind the rockes. And 



Frobisher in Arctic America 165 

being onely two Salvages in sight they so fiercely, 
desperately, and with such fury assaulted and pursued 
our Generall and his Master, being altogether unarmed, 
and not mistrusting their subtiltie, that they chased 
them to their boates and hurt the Generall . . . with an 
arrow, who the rather speedily fled backe, because they 
suspected a greater number behind the rockes. Our 
souldiers (which were commanded before to keepe their 
boates) perceiving the danger, and hearing our men 
calling for shot, came speedily to rescue thinking there 
had been a greater number. But when the Salvages 
heard the shot of one of our calivers (and yet having 
just bestowed their arrowes) they ran away, our men 
speedily following them. But a servant of my Lorde 
of Warwick, called Nicholas Conger, a good footman, 
and uncombred with any furniture having only a 
dagger at his backe, overtook one of them, and being 
a Cornishman and a good wrestler, shewed his com- 
panion such a Cornish tricke that he made his sides ake 
for a moneth after." 

So one was captured while the other escaped. With 
this "new and strange prey" the captain and his com- 
panions finally embarked on their boats. But it had 
become too late to reach the ships, and a storm had 
arisen. Accordingly they crossed to a small island to 
tarry the night. They had neither eaten nor drunk 
through the day, and now could refresh themselves only 
with a scant supply of victuals which had been put in 
the boats for their dinner. Then they lay down upon 
"hard clifFes of snow and yce," wet, cold, and comfort- 



1 66 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

less; and so, "keeping verie good watch and warde," 
the night was spent. 

Meanwhile the ships in the bay were having a perilous 
time of it. Settle relates that they were "forced to 
abide in a cruell tempest, chancing in the night amongst 
and in the thickest of the yce which was so monstrous " 
that they would have been shivered to pieces had not 
the lightness of the night enabled them to shift about 
and avoid the rushing ice floes. And Best tells of an 
earlier peril escaped. The "Ayde" had been set afire 
through the " negligence of the Cooke in over-heating, 
and the workman in making the chimney," and she was 
saved from destruction only by a ship-boy's chance 
discovery of the flames. The next morning, however, 
opened fair and tranquil. Then "the Generall espying 
the ships, with his new Captive and whole company, 
came happily abord, and reported what had passed a 
shoare." And then "altogither upon our knees we 
gave God humble and heartie thankes, for that it had 
pleased him, from so speedy peril to send us such 
speedy deliverance." 

That day, the twentieth of July, the ships "stroke 
over" from the northern shore toward the southern, 
and the next day a bay was discovered running into the 
land, which seemed a likely harbour for them. Thither 
Frobisher, again taking the goldfiners, rowed, to "make 
proofe thereof," and at the same time to search for ore 
on this side, having as yet assayed nothing on the south 
shore. The sands and cliffs of the islands here visited 
"did so glister" in the sun and had so "bright a mar- 



Frobisher in Arctic America 167 

quesite," that "it seemed all to be gold." But, un- 
happily, upon trial it "prooved no better then [than] 
black-lead." Thus, as the philosophic Settle observed, 
and Best echoed, was verified the "old proverb, All is 
not gold that glistereth." On one island, indeed, a 
mine of silver was struck, but the stuff was not to be 
"wonne [won] out of the rockes without great labour." 
On another, in lieu of precious metal, was discovered, 
"embayed in yce" a carcass of a great "sea unicorn," 
or morse, with a "home of two yardes long growing out 
of the snout," "like in fashion to a Taper made of 
waxe." And this unicorn's horn was the sole trophy 
of the prospecting on this side. It was long afterward 
to be seen in England, being "reserved as a Jewel by 
the Queenes Majesties commandement in her ward- 
robe of Robes." The harbour, however, appeared 
satisfactory, and on the next day the ships bore into 
the sound and came to anchor. This sound they 
named "Jackman's Sound," after the mate of the 
"Ayde." 

The ships now being in fair "securitie" another 
formal entry into the country was made and a thanks- 
giving ceremony performed. Best's relation is Settle's 
account enlarged: "Tuesday the three and twentieth 
of July our Generall with his best company of gentle- 
men, souldiers and saylers, to the number of seventie 
persons in all, marched with ensigne displyede up the 
continent of the Southerland (the supposed continent 
of America), where, commanding a Trumpet to sound 
a call for every man to repaire to the ensigne, he de- 



1 68 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

clared to the whole companie how much the cause 
imported for the service of her Majestie; our countrey, 
our credit, and the safetie of our owne lives, and there- 
fore required every man to be conformable to order, 
and to be directed by those he should assigne. And 
he appointed for leaders, Captaine Fenton, Captaine 
Yorke, and his Lieutenant George Beste: which done, 
we cast our selves into a ring, and altogither on our 
knees, gave God humble thanks for that he had pleased 
him of his great goodnesse to preserve us from such 
imminent dangers, beseeching likewise the assistance 
of his holy spirite, so to deliver us in safetie unto our 
Countrey, w T hereby the light and truth of these secrets 
being knowen, it might redound to the more honour 
of his holy name, and consequently to the advance- 
ment of our common wealth. And so, in as good sort 
as the place suffered, we marched towards the tops of 
the mountains [as stated by Settle, now and then 
heaping up stones on them in token of possession] 
which were no lesse painfull in climbing then [than] 
dangerous in descending, by reason of their steepnesse 
& yce. And having passed about five miles, by such 
unwieldie wayes, we returned unto our ships without 
sight of any people, or likelihood of habitation." 

Inspired by this journey to further exploration, 
several of the company urged Frobisher to permit 
them to march with a picked band thirty or forty 
leagues inland to discover it, and "do some acceptable 
service" for England. But he, "not contented with 
the matter he sought for [that is, gold], and well con- 



Frobisher in Arctic America 169 

sidering the short time he had in hand, and the greedie 
desire our countrey hath to a present savour and re- 
turne of gaine," declined their petition at that junct- 
ure, and "bent his whole indevour only to find a Mine 
to fraight his ships." After he had found freight for 
the barks he would hope to "discover further for the 
passage" through the supposed strait. 

So on the twenty-sixth he set off again for the north- 
land, taking the two barks, and leaving the "Ayde" 
alone riding in Jackman's Sound. That night he came 
to anchor in a little haven to which he gave the name 
of "Bear's Sound," for the master of the "Michael." 
Here more trouble was encountered. "The tydes did 
runne so swift, and the place was so subject to in- 
drafts of yce," that the barks were in constant danger. 
Still, they rode without serious injury through the next 
day, while the party having found "a very nice Myne, 
as they supposed" on a neighbouring island (named by 
them Leicester's Island), managed to get together 
" almost twentie tunne of ore." But the next day the 
ice came driving into the sound with such force that 
both barks were "greatly distressed," and it became 
imperative at once to get away from this dangerous 
place. Thus they were obliged to leave the ore they 
had dug up in a pile on the island. They got off on 
the next flood toward morning. About "five leagues" 
beyond they came upon another sound, so "fenced on 
eche [each] side with smal ilands lying off the maine, 
which breake the force of the tides," as to form an 
exceptionally good harbour. Accordingly they de- 



170 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

cided to anchor here, under one of the isles. Then 
landing, they found on this isle such an abundance of 
ore "indifferent good," that they concluded to load 
here rather than to seek further "for better and spend 
time with jeoperdie." 

This decision being reached the miners were put 
diligently to work, Frobisher setting a good example by 
his own energetic action, and every man of the party 
"willingly layd to their helping hands." The "Mi- 
chael" was despatched back to Jackman's to bring up 
the " Ayde," and on the last day of July the ships were 
all in this haven, and all of the company busy at mining. 
Within twenty days from the start of these operations 
nearly two hundred tons of the supposed ore had 
been shipped, and preparations had begun for the 
homeward voyage. Meanwhile a little fort had been 
built on the island for accommodation and defence. 
This was devised by Best, and his name was given it 
as " Best's Bulwark." Both sound and island were 
named the "Countess Warwick's Sound and Island," 
in honour of "that vertuous Ladie, Anne Countesse of 
Warwicke." The Countess of Warwick's land is the 
Kod-lu-narn of to-day. 

While the work of mining was going forward on this 
island more scrimmages with the natives were had. 
Captain Yorke of the "Michael," when coming up 
from Jackman's Sound, had a sharp fight with a body 
of them on the shore of a little bay, afterward called for 
him "Yorke's Sound." And here, in one of their seal- 
skin tents, were found relics — an old shirt, a doubletj 



Frobisher in Arctic America 171 

a girdle, and shoes — of the five Englishmen whom the 
natives had captured on the first voyage. Thereupon 
rescue parties were sent out; a letter advising the lost 
men, if any were alive, of the presence of their friends, 
was left in the custody of those of the natives who 
seemed the most friendly, with pen, ink, and paper for 
communicating their whereabouts; and threats of re- 
prisal were made if the men were not produced or 
their fate disclosed: but all to no purpose. One 
rescue party under Master Philpot, the ensign, came 
into conflict with a group off Yorke's Sound, who 
began an assualt with a flight of arrows; and on their 
flying retreat Philpot's men captured a young woman 
and child to add to the living "prey" to be taken back 
to England. Several of the natives, when wounded by 
the Englishmen's return fire, leapt into the sea and 
drowned themselves. The young woman was taken 
with an old one, the two "not being so apt to escape 
as the men were, the one for her age, and the other 
being incombred" with the child. Some of the pur- 
suing Englishmen suspected the old woman of being 
"eyther a devill or a witch," and to satisfy themselves 
on this fearful point, they "had her buskins plucked 
off to see if she was cloven footed." She was finally 
let go because of her "ougly [ugly] hue and deformity." 
Fuller information about the natives and their cus- 
toms was given in the narratives of this voyage than 
of the first one. Settle describes the men as "of a 
large corporature and of good proportion." They 
wore their hair "something long, and cut before either 



172 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

with stone or knife, very disorderly." The women 
also wore long hair, but theirs was "knit up with two 
loupes, shewing forth on either side of their faces, and 
the rest foltred upon a knot." Their apparel was 
comprised of "skins of such beasts as they kill, sewed 
together with the sinews of them." These garments 
were made with "hoods and tailes which tailes they 
give when they thinke to gratifie any friendship shewed 
unto them: a great sign of friendship with them." 
Their legs were encased in "hose of leather with the 
fur side inward, two or three pairs on at once." These 
stockings were held up by a bone placed inside them, 
reaching from the foot to the knee, instead of by gar- 
ters. In them they carried their "knives, needles, and 
other things needful to beare about." The beasts, 
fishes, and fowls that they killed provided all their 
wants. They were their "meat, drinke, apparell, 
houses, bedding, hose, shoes, thread, and sails of their 
boates, with many other necessaries," and "almost all 
their riches." 

Their weapons comprised bows and arrows, darts, 
and slings. The bows were of wood, "a yard long, 
sinewed at the back with strong sinews." The bow- 
strings were also sinews. The arrows were wooden, 
half a yard or a little more in length, "nocked with 
bone and ended with bone," feathered, and of three 
styles of heads: one, of stone or iron, "proportioned 
like to a heart"; another, of bone with a hooked tip; the 
third, of bone sharp on both sides and sharp pointed. 
The darts were of two kinds, one with "many forkes 



Frobisher in Arctic America 173 

of bone in the fore end and likewise in the midst," the 
other with "a long bone made sharpe on both sides, 
not much unlike a Rapier." Their boats were of 
leather, "set out on the inner side with quarters of 
wood artificially tyed together with thongs of the 
same"; and they were of two sorts: one large, to carry 
sixteen or twenty men, and provided with a sail made 
of the "guts of such beasts as they kill very fine and 
thin, which they sew together"; the other, a canoe, 
intended for one man only, with a single oar or paddle. 
Their winter habitations Best thus described: "Upon 
the maine land over against the Countesses Hand we 
discovered and behelde to our great marvell the poore 
caves and houses of those countrey people, which serve 
them (as it would seeme) for their winter dwellings." 
They were " made two fadome under grounde, in com- 
passe round, like to an Oven, being joyned fast one by 
another, having holes like to a fox or Connyberry, to 
keepe and come togither. They undertrenched these 
places with gutters so, that the waters falling from the 
hills above them, may slide away without their annoy- 
ance: and are seated commonly in the foote of a hill, 
to shield them better from the cold windes, having 
their doore and entrance ever open towards the South. 
From the ground upward they builde with whales 
bones for lacke of timber, which bending one over 
another, are handsomely compacted in the top to- 
gether, and are covered over with Sealesskinne, which 
instead of tiles fence them from the raine. In which 
house they have only one roome, having the one halfe 



174 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

of the floure [floor] raised with broad stones a foot 
higher than ye other, whereon strawing Mosse they 
make their nests to sleep in." 

The company finished the lading of the ships with 
their precious freight on the twenty-first of August, and 
the next day took formal leave of the place with a 
demonstration. Bonfires were lighted on the highest 
mount; then all marched in procession, with ensign 
displayed, round about the island; and finally a 
"vollie of shott" was given "for a farewell" in honour 
of the Countess of Warwick. 

They set sail on the twenty-third with a prosperous 
wind, but before clearing the sound were becalmed and 
obliged to come to anchor again. The next morning, 
making a fresh start, they proceeded to sea. Here 
they took a more southerly course to "bring them- 
selves the sooner into the latitude of their own climate." 
The wind was so strong that they lay "a hull" the 
first night, and had snow half a foot deep on the hatches. 
Three or four days later the "Michael" lost company 
of the other two ships, and shaping her course toward 
the Orkneys she arrived first in England, making port 
at Yarmouth. Later the "Gabriel" was separated 
from the "Ayde." On the thirtieth of August, with 
the force of the wind and a "surge of the sea," the 
"Gabriel's" master and the boatswain were both cast 
overboard. The boatswain was saved but the master 
lost. In the same storm, on the first of September, 
the "Ayde" was disabled, her rudder being "torn in 
twain." The next day, when a calm succeeded the 



Frobisher in Arctic America 175 

tempest, an heroic work was performed in mending 
the break. "They flung halfe a dozen couple of our 
best men overboard, who taking great paines under 
water, driving plankes and binding with ropes, did well 
strengthen and mend the matter." This done (it is 
Best's relation) the men returned "the most part more 
than halfe dead out of the water." The "Ayde" first 
dropped anchor in "Padstow road," Cornwall. On 
the twenty-third of September she was at Milford 
Haven, in Wales; and a month later came up to Bristol. 
Here the "Gabriel" had earlier arrived. After the 
loss of her master, and when she was floundering at 
sea, she had the good fortune to meet with a Bristol 
ship, which piloted her thither. Here also word was 
had of the first arrival of the "Michael." Of the one 
hundred and twenty men comprising the whole com- 
pany all reached home in safety except two — Master 
Smyth of the "Gabriel" and one of the gentlemen, 
who died at sea. 

Their return with the two hundred tons of glistering 
stone and earth was a great event. The treasure was 
committed to keeping in the Castle at Bristol, while 
Frobisher repaired with all haste to the court, now at 
Windsor, to make report to the queen. 



XIV 

THE LUST FOR GOLD 

OF Frobisher's interview with the queen and 
what followed we have account in the intro- 
ductory paragraph of the third chapter of Best's 
True Discourse: 

"He was courteously enterteyned, and hartily wel- 
commed of many noble men, but especially for his 
great adventure commended of her Majestie, at whose 
hands he received great thankes, and most gracious 
countenance, according to his deserts. Her Highnesse 
also greatly commended the rest of the Gentlemen in 
this service, for their great forwardnes in this so dan- 
gerous an attempt. . . . And finding that the matter of 
the gold Ore had appearance & made shew of great 
riches & profit, & the hope of the passage to Cataya, 
by this last voyage greatly increased, her Majestie ap- 
pointed speciall commissioners chosen for this pur- 
pose, gentlemen of great judgmente, art, and skill, to 
looke thorowly into the cause, for the true triall and 
due examination thereof, and for the full handling of 
all matters thereunto appertaining. And because that 
place and countrey hath never heretofore beene dis- 

176 



The Lust for Gold 177 

covered, and therefore had no speciall name by which 
it might be called and knowen, her Majestie named it 
very properly Meta Incognita, as a marke and bound 
utterly hitherto unknowen." 

A part of the ore was brought up from Bristol Castle 
and deposited in the Tower of London under lock and 
key; and after "sufficient triall and proofe" of it had 
been made, and they had also become satisfied of the 
"likelyhood" of the Northwest Passage, the commis- 
sioners advised the queen that "the cause was of im- 
portance, and the voyage worthy to be advanced 
again." 

Accordingly a third expedition was planned on quite 
a grand scale, and with this project was coupled a 
scheme of what might be termed limited colonization 
in Meta Incognita. One hundred selected "souldiers 
and discreet men" were to be assigned to inhabit the 
place at least through a year, for the "better guard" of 
those parts already found; for further discovery of the 
inland and of its "secrets," meaning mineral wealth; 
and, lastly, for further search for the passage. For 
their accommodation the frame of a fort or house of 
timber, "cunningly devised by a notable learned man" 
in London, was to be carried out in parts in the ships; 
also a pinnace, in parts. 

For this larger venture, besides most of the company 
on the previous voyage, "many well minded and for- 
ward young Gentlemen," sons of the English gentry, 
volunteered. Fifteen well-furnished ships, including 
the experienced three, the "Ayde," the "Gabriel," and 



178 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

the "Michael," were assembled, constituting an im- 
posing fleet. The "Ayde" was again designated the 
"admiral," carrying the captain-general. There was a 
"viceadmiral" — the "Thomas Allen" — in command 
of Captain Yorke of the "Michael" in the previous 
voyage. Christopher Hall was named chief pilot. 
The third ship in line was the "Judith," under Captain 
Fenton, before of the "Gabriel," and Frobisher's 
lieutenant-general. The fourth was the "Anne Fran- 
cis," under Captain Best; the fifth, the "Hopewell," 
Captain Carew; the sixth, the " Beare," Captain Phil- 
pot, the ensign on the second voyage. The others were: 
the "Thomas of Ipswich," Captain Tanfield; the 
"Emmanuel of Exeter," Captain Courtney; the "Fran- 
cis of Foy," Captain Mayles; the "Moone," Captain 
Upcot; the "Emmanuel (or Buss) of Bridgewater," 
Captain Newton; the "Solomon of Weymouth," Cap- 
tain Randal; and the barks "Dennis," "Gabriel," and 
"Michael," Captains Kendal, Harvey, and Kinnesley, 
respectively. The government of the expedition was 
commended to Frobisher, with Fenton, Best, and Phil- 
pot as his principal aides. The one hundred appointed 
to constitute the temporary colony were to comprise 
forty mariners for the use of their ships, thirty miners 
to gather ore for shipment the next year, and thirty 
soldiers, the latter number including the gentlemen, 
goldfiners, bakers, and carpenters. Three ships of the 
fleet were to remain with the colony through the year: 
the others were to load with the ore and return at the 
end of the summer. 



The Lust for Gold 179 

The gallant fifteen, all "in good readinesse," fore- 
gathered at Harwich on the twenty-seventh of May, 
1578. Thereupon "the Generall with all the Cap- 
taines came to the Court," now at Greenwich, *"to 
take their leave of her Majestic" All received at 
her hands "great encouragement and gracious counte- 
nance"; while upon Frobisher she bestowed, " besides 
other good gifts and greater promises," a "fair chain 
of gold," herself throwing it around his neck. Then 
all the captains kissed the royal hand, and departed 
"every man toward his charge." 

At Harwich the general and his captains made formal 
view of the fleet and mustered their companies. Then 
the general handed to each captain his articles of direc- 
tion for the conduct of the expedition. On the thirty- 
first anchors were weighed and the fleet were ofF. 

The story of this voyage covers many pages in the 
telling by its chroniclers, but it can profitably be com- 
pressed into smaller compass. It is a tale of hardship 
with scant result, full of exciting incident and exhibi- 
tions of heroism and nerve. As before, Hakluyt gives 
us two narratives — the one written by Thomas Ellis, 
of the "Ayde's" company; the other by Best, being 
the third chapter of his True Discourse. 

The start was auspicious. OfF the Irish coast a 
bark was sighted which by her actions was supposed 
to be a "rover of the seas," and a merry chase was 
given her. When, however, overhauled, she was found 
to be not a pirate, but a reputable Bristol boat and 
the victim of a pirate. Several of her crew had been 



i8o Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

killed; others lay wounded, hungry, and desolate. 
The fleet was held up while our captain succoured them 
and started her homeward in comparative comfort. 
This good deed done the voyage was renewed, and 
without further incident of moment continued till the 
Arctic regions were reached. On the twentieth of 
June new land was discerned in "West Frisland"— the 
south of Greenland. Frobisher and others went ashore 
here, the "first known Christians," Best wrote, "that 
we have true notice of that ever set foot on that ground." 
Accordingly the captain-general " took possession there- 
of to the use of our Sovereigne Lady the Queen Majes- 
tic" He named it "West England"; and a high cliff 
on the sea front he called "Charing Crosse," for "a 
certaine similitude" to the London landmark. The 
inhabitants were found to be very like those of Meta 
Incognita. From this coast, where much drifting ice 
was met, they bore southerly toward the sea, hoping 
comfortably to make their destination. On the last 
day of June they came upon "many great whales." 
One of the ships struck a big fellow head on, and such 
a powerful blow that the vessel was brought to a full 
stop. "The whale thereat made a great and ugly 
noyse and cast up his body and taile, and so went 
under water." Two days after a dead whale "swim- 
ming" above water was met, and this was supposed to 
be the fellow which the ship struck. On the second of 
July Queen Elizabeth's Foreland was sighted encom- 
passed by ice. 

Now their trials began. The way to Frobisher's 




QUEEN ELIZABETH. 



The Lust for Gold 181 

"straits" was found to be "choked up" with "many 
walles, mountaines, and bulwarks of yce." Off the 
Foreland and, as they supposed, about the entrance to 
the "straits" they were buffeted by high winds and 
"forced many times to stemme and strike great rockes" 
of ice. Soon the fleet was dispersed. The "Judith," 
carrying the lieutenant-general, Fenton, disappeared. 
The "Michael" had been early lost from sight by her 
companion ships. Of those which remained in com- 
pany the bark "Dennis" shortly foundered, having 
received a crushing blow against a rock of ice. As 
she took the blow she signalled her danger by a shot 
from her great gun, and, fortunately, such quick aid 
was rendered by the other ships with their shipboats 
that all her men were saved. With her went down a 
part of the frame of the house to be erected for the 
band assigned to winter at Meta Incognita. Next a 
savage tempest suddenly arose, blowing from the sea 
"directly upon the place of the straits," and various 
devices had to be resorted to to save the ships from 
destruction. Some getting a little sea room took in 
sails and drifted. Some were moored to great "islands 
of ice" and rode under their lee. Others were so shut 
in that they were at the mercy of the ice. To break its 
force, "junckes [junks] of cables, beds, masts, planks" 
were hung over their sides, while the mariners stood for 
hours beating it off with pikes, oars, and pieces of tim- 
ber. Four — the "Anne Francis," Best's ship, the 
"Moone," the "Francis of Foy," and the "Gabriel"— 
being farthest from shore, and fast sailers, weathered 



1 82 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

the tempest under sail; and by noon the next day they 
had got off at sea clear of ice. And here by night of 
the following day they were joined by the rest of the 
fleet, which had escaped with a turn of the wind that 
had broken their ice barriers. Now joyous in fellow- 
ship again, they all " played off " more to seaward, there 
to abide till the ice had further cleared from before the 
entrance to their "straits." 

On the seventh of July they "cast about toward the 
inward" for another attempt. Shortly they sighted 
land, which was before them in form like the North 
Foreland, or Hall's Island. But there was a difference 
of opinion as to whether it was or was not. The coast 
being veiled in fog was difficult to make out. After a 
while a height was discerned which some were sure was 
Mount Warwick. Yet they marvelled how it was 
possible that they should be so suddenly "shot up" so 
far into the "straits." The captain-general sent his 
pinnace the round of the fleet to take a census of the 
opinions of all the captains and masters. As the 
matter grew more doubtful Christopher Hall, the chief 
pilot, whose knowledge of this Foreland, to whom his 
name had been given, was the more intimate, "de- 
livered a plain and publique opinion in the hearing of 
the whole Fleete, that he had never seene the foresayd 
coast before, and that he would not make it for any 
place of Frobisher's Straits." 

They were, in fact, southwestward of Queen Eliz- 
abeth's Foreland, and at the entrance to Hudson's 
Strait, to be rediscovered or re-explored thirty-two 



The Lust for Gold 183 

years afterward by Henry Hudson, and so named for 
him. 

The fog continued to hang about them "thick and 
dark," and on the tenth they were again partly dis- 
persed. The "Thomas Allen," aboard of which was 
the chief pilot with Captain Yorke, having lost sight of 
the admiral, turned back to sea with two others in her 
company. The "Anne Francis," finding herself alone, 
also put to sea, to remain till the weather should permit 
the taking of the sun's altitude. The "Ayde" kept on 
the course, and leading the rest of the fleet, passed into 
the "doubtful" strait. 

Up this broad passage the "Ayde" and her consorts 
sailed for "about sixty leagues," having "always a 
faire continent upon their starreboard side, and a con- 
tinuance still of an open sea before them." Frobisher 
was the first to realize that they were on a new and 
unknown water. Yet he dissembled his opinion and 
continued to persuade his associates that it was the 
right way, by such policy meaning to carry them along 
with him for further discovery. This he was said to 
have afterward confessed when he declared that "if 
it had not bene for the charge and care he had of the 
Flete and fraighted ships, he both would and could 
have gone through to the South Sea [the Pacific] . . . 
and dissolved the long doubt of the passage" to "Ca- 
thay." While he may have been more or less impelled 
to his adventures, in common with his chief backers, 
by the "lust for gold," he was above all moved by the 
spirit of the true discoverer: a merit in his perform- 



184 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

ances which some popular historians have failed to 
recognize. 

When at length he turned the fleet and they sailed 
back to the entrance of this strait, he found a way into 
the "old strait" by the inside of Queen Elizabeth's 
Foreland, thus incidentally discovering that to be an 
island. Now within the "proper strait," after many 
perils overcome in making it, some of the dispersed 
ships were met, and others heard from. First ap- 
peared the "Anne Francis," which had long been 
"beating off and on" before the Queen's Foreland. 
At the meeting they joyously welcomed one another 
with "a thundering volley of shot." The next day the 
"Francis of Foy" joined them, having fought her way 
through the ice out of the "mistaken strait." She 
brought tidings of the "Thomas Allen," which she had 
left at sea clear of the ice. Later the " Buss of Bridge- 
water" showed up, and reported the "marvellous acci- 
dents and dangers" she had experienced. 

The latter's men also declared that "Frobisher's 
Straits" above were so frozen over that it was "the 
most impossible thing of the world" to reach the des- 
tined port — the Countess of Warwick's Sound. This 
report spreading through the fleet "brought no small 
feare and terror into the hearts of many," and mur- 
murs against venturing further passed from lip to lip. 
Some urged that a harbour be sought where the bat- 
tered ships might be repaired, and the fleet might await 
the dispersion of the ice. Others mutinously declared 
that they "had as leave be hanged when they came 



The Lust for Gold 185 

home as without hope of safetie to seeke to passe, and 
so to perish amongst the ice." 

To all these murmurings of discontent, however, the 
intrepid Frobisher lent a deaf ear, determined to reach 
the ultimate port or else to "burie himselfe with his 
attempt." But, as before, he dissembled. "Some- 
what to appease the feeble passions of the fearfuller 
sort," he "haled on the Fleete with beleefe that he 
would put them into harborow." Accordingly he went 
with his pinnace among the neighbouring islands as if 
searching for a haven, but really to see if any ore might 
be found in them. 

Meanwhile another "terrible tempest" suddenly 
came up from the southwest, and once more the fleet 
were in part dispersed. It was the twenty-sixth of 
July, and snow fell so hard and fast that "we could 
not see one another for the same, nor open our eyes to 
handle our ropes and sails." The "Anne Francis," 
the "Moone," and the "Thomas of Ipswich" again 
plied seaward. The rest of the fleet stayed by the 
admiral. When the storm was spent these remaining 
ships under Frobisher's lead had pushed through the 
ice up the bay, "with incredible pain and peril," and 
at last reached the goal, dropping anchors in the 
Countess of Warwick's Sound on the thirty-first of 
July. At the entrance to the haven, when all hardship 
was thought to be over, the "Ayde" narrowly escaped 
sinking through contact with a "great island of ice." 
Here, to their astonishment, the new-comers found 
arrived before them the "Judith" and the "Michael," 



1 86 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

both of which had been mourned as lost. The happy 
meeting was celebrated with more exchange of thunder- 
ing salutes from the great ordnance. Then all came 
together in a service of praise and thanksgiving, and 
the minister of the fleet, Master Wolfall, preached a 
"goodly sermon "to a kneeling company on the "Ayde." 
No time was lost in getting to work at the "mines." 
Immediately upon landing on the Countess of War- 
wick's Island Frobisher assembled his council of cap- 
tains and orders of government were adopted. On the 
first of August the whole company were mustered on 
shore, the tents set up, and everything got in readiness 
for operations. On the next day the orders of the 
council were published and proclaimed by sound of 
the trumpet. On the next, all were diligently em- 
ployed in their several classes, the miners plying their 
trade, the goldfiners trying the "ore," the sailors dis- 
charging the ships : the gentlemen labouring as heartily 
as the "inferior sort" for "examples sake." Mean- 
while Frobisher was busied in seeking new mines in 
neighbouring parts. On the ninth of August prepara- 
tions were made to set up the house for the one hundred 
men assigned to remain here a year. But half of the 
frame had been lost with the foundering of the " Den- 
nis," and the remaining parts, brought out in others 
of the ships, were imperfect, pieces having been used 
for fenders in the battles of the ships against the ice. 
Provisions also were short, the "Thomas of Ipswich" 
having carried most of the supplies intended for the 
temporary colonists. Captain Fenton offered to stay 



The Lust for Gold 187 

with sixty men, and the carpenters and masons were 
asked how soon they could build a house for this 
smaller number. They replied, in eight or nine weeks, 
provided enough timber could be found. Of course 
this would never do, for the fleet must depart much 
before that time or else be frozen in for the winter. 
There remained no alternative, and so the general and 
council were forced reluctantly to decide that the plan 
of a habitation for this year must be abandoned. Later 
in the month, however, a little house of lime and stone 
was erected under Captain Fenton's direction for pos- 
sible occupation another year. And when at length 
the company were making ready to leave the place, this 
house was stocked with the trifles they had brought for 
traffic with the natives — bells, whistles, knives, looking- 
glasses, combs, pins, leaden toy men and women, some 
on horseback some on foot — "the better to allure" the 
"bruitish and uncivill people to courtesie" against an- 
other coming of the Englishmen. 

Toward the middle of August the "Thomas Allen" 
had joined the fleet here, and her company were work- 
ing a "mine" which Captain Yorke had found on an 
island by 'Bear's Sound, which he called the "Countess 
of Sussex Mine." Near the end of the month the 
"Anne Francis" and the "Moone" had arrived. Now 
the fleet were once more together, excepting the lost 
"Dennis" and the "Thomas of Ipswich," supposed 
also to be lost. The "Thomas of Ipswich," however, 
as subsequently appeared, had, after the tempest of 
July twenty-six, when she was at sea in company with 



1 88 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

the "Anne Francis" and the "Moone," turned about 
under the cover of night, and scudded home for England. 
The "Anne Francis" came up laden with ore which 
she had taken on an island in a harbour of Queen's 
Foreland, which Best had found, and which he reported 
was in such abundance there that if its goodness 
equalled its plentifulness it "might reasonably suffice 
all the gold-gluttons of the world." The adventures 
of this ship after the tempest of the twenty-sixth of 
July — which the chroniclers distinguished as "the day 
of the great snowe" — were remarkable in several re- 
spects, and Captain Best showed himself to be of the 
same heroic mould as Captain Frobisher. When she, 
with the "Moone" and the "Thomas of Ipswich" had 
been for a long time beating about off "Queen's Fore- 
land," and were bruised and battered from their con- 
tacts with the ice, Best called the several captains and 
masters to a conference in her cabin. Having grave 
doubts as to the fate of the rest of the fleet, and con- 
sidering the sorry condition of their own vessels, to- 
gether with the lateness of the season, a proposal to 
abandon further efforts and turn their prows homeward 
was earnestly debated. Both sides having been fully 
heard, Best rendered the decision. It should never be 
spoken of him, he declared, that "hee would ever 
return without doing his endeavours to finde the Fleete 
and know the certaintie of the General's safetie." It 
was therefore agreed that first a fit harbour should be 
sought; that this found, the pinnace brought out in 
parts on the "Anne Francis" should be put together; 



The Lust for Gold 189 

and that then, leaving the ships in the harbour, he 
himself would take the pinnace and push up the 
"straits" to prove if it were possible for the ships to 
break through the ice and reach the Countess of War- 
wick's Land; and also to seek tidings of Frobisher and 
the rest of the fleet. In the meantime the skippers were 
to keep the craft together as near as they could, "as 
true Englishmen and faithful friends should supply one 
another's wants in all fortunes and dangers." Only 
the next night, however, the company of the "Thomas 
of Ipswich" was lost, and the "Anne Francis" and the 
"Moone" alone remained to pursue the adventure as 
agreed. Harbour was found by Best at an island lying 
under "Hatton's Headland," where he discovered the 
promising ore. For this "good hap" he called the 
island " Best's Blessing." Here his miners were put to 
work on the ore, while the carpenters toiled at building 
the pinnace. How this was done with the shifts they 
were put to for tools and materials is best told in Best's 
words : 

"They wanted two speciall and most necessaire 
things, that is, certaine principall tymbers that are 
called Knees, which are the chiefest strength of any 
Boate, and also nayles, where withall to joyne the 
plancks together. Whereupon having by chance a 
Smyth amongst them (and yet unfurnished of the 
necessary tooles to worke and make nayles withall) 
they were faine of a gunne chamber to make an Anvile 
to worke upon, and to use a pickaxe in stead of a 
sledge to beate withall, and also to occupy two small 



190 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

bellowes in steade of one payre of greater Smiths bel- 
lowes. And for lacke of small yron for the easier mak- 
ing of nayles, they were forced to breake their tongs, 
grydiron, and fire shovel in pieces." 

At length on the seventeenth of August the boat, 
although hung together only by the strength of the 
nails, and lacking some of the principal knees and 
timbers, was pronounced finished, and Best made 
ready for his voyage. Veteran seamen strongly ad- 
vised against the venture in such a frail craft, assured 
that it could have only a fatal end. Thereupon he 
called for the best judgment of the master and mariners 
of his ship upon the matter, and to foster a favourable 
decision, he urged the absolute necessity for the voyage 
now that ore had been found, to seek with Frobisher's 
company the goldfiners who alone could test the value 
of their "find." This court of last resort decided that 
by careful handling the pinnace might suffice. Then 
the master's mate and Captain Upcot of the "Moone" 
volunteered for the voyage. Others were quick to 
follow their example; and on the nineteenth Best set 
off with a goodly crew, the whole company comprising 
twenty men. With much rowing and cautious sailing, 
and hugging the shore, they got on without the disaster 
predicted. On the second day out they had sight of 
the Countess of Warwick's Sound in the distance from 
a hilltop on shore where they had landed for observa- 
tion. Again afloat, soon smoke was seen rising from 
a fire under a hillside. As this point was approached 
people were observed and apparently signalling them 



The Lust for Gold 191 

with a flag or ensign. They suspected that this was a 
trick of natives, for they saw no ship. Coming nearer 
tents were seen, and it was perceived that the ensign 
was "after the English fashion." They fancied that 
some of the fleet had been brought up thus far and 
wrecked, and that they had been spoiled by the natives, 
who were now signalling them likewise into danger. 
Then, true Englishmen that they were, they resolved 
to have that flag, or, "els to lose their lives." So they 
made for it, and to their great surprise and joy they 
found it to be a signal of their own countrymen. When 
within hailing they shouted "What cheer?" The re- 
sponse came cheerily back, "All's well." Then "there 
arose a sudden and joyfull outshoote [shout] with great 
flinging up of caps, and a brave voly of shot to welcome 
one another." The group thus so happily met were a 
party working the "mine" on the Countess of Sussex 
Island. They, in their turn, had supposed when they 
signalled that Best's company were survivors of a 
wreck of one of the ships. From this point the shaky 
pinnace hastened into the Countess of Warwick's 
Sound, where Frobisher and the rest were met with as 
joyous greetings. Best displayed his samples of ore, 
and the goldfiners, trying them, "supposed" them to 
be "very good." Accordingly Frobisher directed him 
to freight his ship at Best's Blessing, and then bring 
her up. So he returned as he came, and found her 
already laden. The next day she sailed, and arrived 
with the "Moone" at the rendezvous on the twenty- 
eighth of August. 



192 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

On the thirtieth the work at the Countess of War- 
wick's Island was finished and the fleet were prepared 
for the homeward voyage. Frobisher endeavoured to 
persuade his council of captains to make one more 
effort at further discovery. He would "not only by 
Gods help bring home his shippes laden with Ore, but 
also meant to bring some certificate of a further dis- 
covery of the Countrey." His associates were loth to 
fall in with the proposal, considering the time spent in 
the "mistaken straits," and holding that discovery to 
have been something gained, in that thereby the hope 
of a passage to Cathay was " much furthered and en- 
creased"; yet loyal to his leadership they were willing 
as he should appoint to "take any enterprise in hand." 
Although the conclusion was reached that under all 
the circumstances "the thing was impossible," Fro- 
bisher himself took his pinnace and explored some 
distance farther northward. 

On their last day ashore the remnants of the frame 
of their timber house were buried, and about the lime 
and stone house were sown peas, corn, and other grain 
"to proove the fruitfulnesse of the soyle against the 
next yeere." These things done, formal leave of the 
place was taken. The company being assembled. 
Master Wolfall preached another "goodly" sermon, 
and celebrated a communion. The next day, the 
thirty-first of August, all embarked, and the fleet, with 
the exception of the "Judith" and the "Anne Francis," 
which tarried to take in fresh water, hoisted sail for 
home. 



The Lust for Gold 193 

Now new perils were to beset them. The "Buss of 
Bridgewater" and the barks "Gabriel" and "Michael," 
not fully laden, put into Bear's Sound to take on a 
little more, the others meanwhile waiting for them 
farther down the bay. Frobisher also went ashore in 
Bear's Sound to superintend the lading; and so did 
Best, the latter to take off his miners and their trap- 
pings here, in his rickety "kneeless" pinnace. That 
night an "outrageous tempest" fell upon them and 
created a general havoc. The fleet down the bay were 
beaten with such vehement "vigor that anchor and 
cable availed nought." They were driven on "rockes 
and Hands of yce" and not one escaped damage. The 
"Judith" and the "Anne Francis" had now joined 
them. Frobisher could not reach his ship and was 
compelled to board the "Gabriel." Best and his men 
had the roughest time of it. Their crazy pinnace was 
taken in tow by the "Michael" and rushed through 
the icy waters till the "Anne Francis" (which with 
the "Judith" had now joined the fleet) was reached. 
They scrambled aboard the "Anne" in panicky haste, 
and as the last man mounted her side the pinnace 
"shivered and sank in pieces at the ship's stern." 
Thus fitly ended the career of this astonishing craft. 
Unseaworthy from the start, she had indeed performed 
wonders, and had miraculously held her own till her 
full work was done. 

Again the fleet was dispersed, not to come together 
through the remainder of the voyage. The "boy- 
strous blasts" continued so fierce and constant that all 



194 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

were blown homeward "will we or nill we" (willy nilly) 
at a clipping pace. "If by chance any one Shippe did 
overtake other by swiftness of sayle, or mette [met] as 
they often did, yet was the rigour of the wind so hideous 
that they could not continue company together the 
space of one whole night." The " Buss of Bridgewater" 
took her course alone to the southeast of Greenland, 
and discovered on the way, in latitude fifty-seven and 
a half degrees north, a phantom island, "seeming to be 
fruitfull, full of woods, and a champagne country." 
It was named "Buss Island," and got onto the maps; 
but it was never again found. The other ships came 
limping home one by one, and by the first of October 
all had arrived, "some in one place and some in an- 
other." Of the whole company that went out forty 
had perished during the expedition. 

There is no record of public demonstrations at this 
home-coming, or of elation over the precious freight of 
the battered ships. During the absence of the voyagers 
a mystery which had been thrown over the ore pre- 
viously brought had deepened, and now there was a 
growing suspicion that it was not the profitable thing 
that had been supposed. Indeed, before this expedi- 
tion had started out from England a pretty sturdy 
quarrel had developed among the assayers. Now the 
breach between them had widened. There was, too, 
a rupture in the councils of the Company of Cathay. 
A sorry situation, therefore, was met by the returned 
voyagers. Frobisher fell upon evil days. Charges of 
broken promises were brought against him. He re- 



The Lust for Gold 195 

torted with similar charges against the management of 
the promoting corporation. Finally, the Company of 
Cathay went to pieces, the adventurers lost heavily in 
their investment, while of the ore of the last voyage, so 
laboriously gathered and safely brought to port through 
such perils, nothing more was heard. 

Thus dismally closes the story of the Eldorado of 
the Northwest. Three centuries afterward, in 1862, 
Captain Charles Francis Hall, the American Arctic 
explorer, on a New England whaler, identified the 
Countess of Warwick's Island as " Kod-lu-narn," the 
"Island of the White Man"; and found, even then in 
a fair state of preservation, the little house of lime and 
stone, with a number of relics of its furnishings. 

Frobisher, upon the sorry sequel of his third voyage, 
lost the queen's favour. He later regained it, how- 
ever, sufficiently to secure his employment in 1580 as 
captain of his majesty's ship the "Foresight" in pre- 
venting the Spaniards from aiding the Irish rebellion 
in Miinster. The next year, 1581, he was the chosen 
leader for a new voyage of Northwestern discovery 
projected by the Earl of Leicester and others. But 
when, before the sailing, in 1582, the instructions were 
changed for the purposes of trade and not for discovery, 
he withdrew from the enterprise in favour of Captain 
Fenton, his lieutenant-general in the voyage of 1578. 

In 1585-1586 he was in Sir Francis Drake's warring 
expedition to the West Indies, in charge of the " Prim- 
rose"; and in 1588 he commanded the "Triumph" in 
the great fight against the Spanish Armada. It was 



196 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

then that he received the honour of knighthood, being 
knighted by Admiral Howard at sea for bravery. In 
1590, 1592, and 1594 he was in other engagements, 
vice-admiral to Sir John Hawkins in one; sent out by 
Sir Walter Raleigh in another; and in the third with 
Sir John Norris at Brest and Crozon. Wounded in 
the last fight while leading his men in action ashore, 
and the victim of unskilled surgery, he died after 
reaching Plymouth. 

He was a brave and resolute man, harsh in bearing, 
with the rough manner of the sailor, but generous and 
just. 



XV 

HAWKINS IN FLORIDA 

A DECADE before Martin Frobisher had opened 
the north parts of the North American continent 
to Englishmen, John Hawkins had surveyed the 
southern tip at Florida, and upon his return had repre- 
sented this fair and favoured region, then to indefinite 
bounds included among Spain's American possessions, 
and in a corner of which France for more than a year 
had maintained a slender foothold, as ripe for Eng- 
land to venture in and colonize. His was the first 
account in detail of Florida by an Englishman, and it 
was the germ from which fruitage later developed in 
Raleigh's schemes. 

Hawkins's were purely trading voyages, and he was a 
fighting trader, demanding the open market for his 
wares at the point of the sword when it was denied him 
by representatives of foreign governments. His wares, 
too, were more or less fought for. The most profitable 
of them were Negroes seized on the African coast and 
bartered into slavery in the West Indies and on the 
Spanish Main — along the north coast of South America. 
He was the first (or his father before him as some his- 

197 



198 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

torians say) to bring the African slave trade into Eng- 
lish commerce, and to plant Negro slavery in America. 
Discovery was only an incident in the pursuit of his 
trade. Yet what he accomplished in this direction was 
of no slight import, since it opened the way to others 
of loftier aims. While his fame is tarnished by the 
blotch of traffic in human beings (in his day, we must 
remember, deemed by the godly and godless alike as 
not an unrighteous traffic), it is enduring by virtue of 
heroic deeds, and his place is fairly with the great 
English captains of the sea who had part in the begin- 
nings of America. 

John Hawkins, born in Plymouth in or about 1532, 
was the son and grandson of notable mariners, and so 
well born to the sea. His grandfather, John Hawkyns, 
had served in Henry the eighth's navy; his father, 
William Hawkyns, shipbuilder and merchant, had been 
one of the principal sea-captains of the west parts of 
England, and was the first Englishman to carry on a 
trade with Brazil. Hakluyt informs us that William 
Hawkyns was "for his wisdome, valure [valour], ex- 
perience, and skill in sea causes much esteemed, and 
beloved of K. Henry the 8." His Brazilian voyages 
comprised "three long and famous" ones, made in his 
own "tall and goodly shippe" of two hundred and fifty 
tons, the "Paul of Plymouth," between the years 1530 
and 1532. He sailed first to the coast of Guinea where 
he traded with the Negroes for elephants' teeth and 
other commodities of the region, and thence crossed to 
Brazil, where he "used such discretion and behaved 



Hawkins in Florida 199 

himself so wisely with those savage people that he grew 
into great familiarity and friendship with them." His 
greatest exploit, or that which won him largest atten- 
tion, seems to have been the bringing to England on a 
visit one of the kings of the country, leaving behind 
as a pledge of his safety and return a member of the 
ship's company — Martin Cockeram, a Plymouth man. 
The savage monarch was brought over on the second 
voyage and his appearance created great astonishment 
in London and at court when he was presented to King 
Henry at Whitehall, as well it might. For, as Hakluyt 
describes, "in his cheekes were holes made according 
to their savage maner, and therein small bones were 
planted, standing an inch out from the said holes, which 
in his own Countrey were reputed for a great braverie. 
He had also another hole in his nether lip, wherein was 
set a precious stone about the bigness of a pease [pea]. 
All his apparel, behaviour, and jesture were very 
strange to the beholders." He remained in London 
for nearly a year, and then, satiated with his entertain- 
ment, embarked for his home in Master Hawkins's 
care, on the latter's third voyage to Brazil. But it was 
his fate to sicken and die at sea. Thereat Master 
Hawkins was much troubled, fearing that the life of 
Cockeram would be forfeited. But when he arrived at 
port and told his story, the savages were "fully per- 
suaded" that their prince had been honestly dealt with, 
and freely gave up the hostage. Cockeram returned 
with his captain none the worse for his sojourn here, 
and lived to spin, long years after, among his fellows at 



200 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

home in Plymouth, rare sailors' yarns about the Simple 
Life among savages. 

John Hawkins followed early in his father's footsteps. 
His earliest voyages were made when quite a young 
man to the Canary Islands. How he came to engage 
in the slave trade between the African coast and the 
West Indies Hakluyt thus naively relates: 

"Master John Haukins having made divers voyages 
to the lies of the Canaries, and there by his good and 
upright dealing being growen in love and favour with 
the people, informed himselfe amongst them by diligent 
inquisition, of the state of the West India, whereof he 
had received some knowledge by the instructions of his 
father, but increased the same by the advertisements 
and reports of that people. And being amongst other 
particulars assured that Negroes were very good mer- 
chandise in Hispaniola, and that store of Negroes 
might easily be had upon the coast of Guinea, resolved 
with himselfe to make triall thereof, and communicated 
that devise with his worshipfull friendes of London; 
namely with Sir Lionel Ducket, Sir Thomas Lodge, 
M. Gunson, his father in law [Benjamin Gonson, then 
treasurer of the navy], Sir Wm. Winter [also of the 
navy], M. Bromfield and others. All which persons 
liked so well of his intention, that they became liberall 
contributers and adventurers in the action." 

The first voyage of this enterprise was made in 1562- 
1563 with a fleet of three ships and a company of one 
hundred men. Sailing in October he touched first in 
his course at Teneriffe. Thence he passed down to 



Hawkins in Florida 201 

the Sierra Leone Coast, where he stayed "some good 
time" and collected, "partly by the sword and partly 
by other meanes," at least three hundred Negroes, 
whom he packed in his ships, besides "other mer- 
chandises which that countrey yieldeth." With this 
"praye" (prey) he sailed over the "ocean sea" bound 
for Hispaniola — San Domingo. Arriving at the port 
of Isabella he there disposed of some of the English 
commodities he had brought out, and a part of his 
living freight, meanwhile alert, "trusting the Spaniards 
no further then [than] by his owne strength he was 
able still to master them." Thence he went to Porto 
Plata, where he made his sales, while, as at Isabella, 
"standing alwaies [always] on his guard"; and lastly to 
Monte Christi, disposing there of the remainder of the 
Negroes. In these three ports he took by way of ex- 
change "such quantitie of merchandise that he did not 
onely lade his owne 3 shippes with hides, ginger, 
sugars, and some quantitie of pearles, but he freighted 
also two other hulkes with hides and other like com- 
modities which he sent into Spaine." Then he re- 
turned to England with "much gain to himselfe and 
the aforesayd venturers" as the outcome of this voy- 
age. The two hulks sent to Spain were seized at 
Seville as smugglers, under the law of the country 
against unlicensed trading in the Spanish colonies, and 
their goods confiscated. These Hawkins valued at 
twenty thousand pounds. Notwithstanding their loss 
the balance of the profits remained large. 

The second voyage, begun in 1564, was that in 



202 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

which Florida was visited. In this venture the Earl of 
Pembroke and Lord Robert Dudley, afterward the 
Earl of Leicester, were foremost as investors. Four 
ships constituted the fleet. These were the "Jesus of 
Lubec," as "admiral," or flag-ship, a fine vessel of 
seven hundred tons belonging to the queen and lent by 
her; the "Solomon," Hawkins's flag-ship in the pre- 
vious voyage; the "Tiger," a bark of fifty tons; and 
the "Swallow," a bark of thirty tons. The fleet were 
well supplied with ordnance, including several "faul- 
cons of brasse" — small brass guns — and a plenty of 
small arms for the men. The company enlisted num- 
bered one hundred and seventy in all. 

They sailed from Plymouth on the eighteenth of 
October. On the ninth of November they had arrived 
at TenerifFe; and later in November and through 
December they were cruising along the African coast 
in the hunt for Negroes. This time the natives were 
everywhere hostile and they had to be fought for. The 
sharpest battle was at a point below Cape Verde. An 
attack was made upon a town from which Hawkins ex- 
pected to capture a hundred and more Negroes, men, 
women, and children, comprising the most of the popu- 
lation. But they fought desperately and only ten were 
taken while seven of Hawkins's men were slain and 
twenty-seven wounded. Farther down the coast the 
hunt was more successful. By the close of January 
the ships were at Sierra Leone all laden with "a great 
company of Negroes"; and on the twenty-ninth of that 
month they set sail with a crowded freight for the West 



Hawkins in Florida 203 

Indies. But they were "only reasonably watered," 
and before they had been long at sea there was much 
suffering among the ships' companies and the living 
cargo alike. For eighteen days they were becalmed; 
afterward they were beset by baffling winds. By mid- 
February, however, fortune again favoured them, 
when, as the devout slave-catcher's chronicler recorded, 
"The Almightie God who never suffereth the elect to 
perish," sent just the right breeze to waft them to their 
destination. 

On the ninth of March they had come to the island 
of Dominica. Here they landed in search of water. 
Only rain-water was found "and such as fell from the 
hills and remained as a puddle in the dale"; and with 
this they filled for the Negroes. Then they cruised 
among the neighbouring islands, and along the Spanish 
Main, but were denied traffic by the Spanish officials 
at all places. At Burburata, Venezuela, in April, 
after arguing the point Hawkins brought the governor 
to terms with a demonstration of his fighting spirit. 
Landing with a hundred men "well armed with bowes, 
arrowes, harquebuzes, and pikes," he marched them in 
battle array toward the town. Thereupon the gov- 
ernor threw up his hands, as the modern phrase is, and 
trade was opened without more ado. Here a number 
of the Negroes were profitably disposed of. Next, in 
May, they came to Rio del Hacha, now of Colombia. 
A sharper demonstration was necessary at this place 
before the Spanish officials would remove the prohibi- 
tion. When they would listen to no argument, and 



204 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

were even unmoved by Hawkins's "diplomacy" in the 
audacious pretension that he was "in an armada of 
the Queens Majesties of England and sent about her 
other affaires, " and had been driven out of his intended 
course and into these parts by contrary winds, he sent 
them the word "to determine either to give him license 
to trade or else stand to their own harmes [arms]." 
With this ultimatum he landed again the one hundred 
• men in armour, with two of his "faulcons." At the 
first firing of these little guns the officials surrendered 
with the desired grant. Traffic then proceeded briskly, 
and within ten days the remainder of the Negroes were 
bartered off prosperously. This accomplished, the 
fleet sailed northward, now in search of a good place 
to take on a supply of fresh water. After beating 
about Jamaica they passed the west end of Cuba and 
came into the gulf of Florida: and so the mainland of 
Florida was reached. 

As they ranged along this coast pursuing their quest 
for several days, dropping anchors at night wherever 
they happened to be, the voyagers observed the luxuri- 
ous country with keen interest. They found it "mar- 
vellously sweete with both marish and medow ground, 
and goodly woods among." As they sailed onward 
Hawkins in his shipboat explored the creeks and 
estuaries, and frequent landings were made from the 
fleet on the green shores. Sorrel was seen growing 
"as abundantly as grasse," and about the habitations 
of the natives were "great store of maiz [maize: Indian 
corn] and mill, and grapes of great bignesse," tasting 



Hawkins in Florida 205 

much like the English grape. Deer were "in great 
plentie, which came upon the sands before them." 
There were quantities of "divers other beasts, and 
fowle, serviceable to the use of man"; and luscious 
fish with strange creatures of the waters. The natives 
were observed apparelled in deer skins, hand-painted, 
"some yellow and red, some blacke and russet, and 
every man according to his own fancy." Their bodies 
were also painted, "with curious knots or antike 
worke." The colours were picked into the flesh with 
a thorn. When arrayed for war their faces were daubed 
with "a sleighter colour" to give them a fiercer show. 
Their weapons were bows and arrows of hard wood 
and reeds. The arrows were of great length, feathered, 
and variously tipped: with viper's teeth, or bones of 
fishes, flint stones, occasionally with silver. The 
women's apparel, besides painted deer skins, com- 
prised "gowns of mosse," long mosses, "which they 
sew together artificially." 

Hawkins was impressed with the spaciousness as 
well as the richness of the region ready for the white 
man's cultivation. As he put it: "The commodities 
of this land are more then [than] are yet knowen to any 
man: for besides the land itselfe, whereof there is 
more then any king Christian is able to inhabit, it 
flourisheth with meadow, pasture ground, with woods 
of Cedar and Cypress and other sorts as better can not 
be in the world." There were of "apothecary herbs, 
trees, roots, and gummes great store." Turpentine, 
myrrh, and frankincense were abundant. As for the 



206 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

precious metals, the natives wanted neither gold nor 
silver, for both were worn for ornament; but where 
they were to be obtained had not yet come to light. It 
was thought that the hills would be found to yield 
them, when sufficient people, Europeans, were here to 
abide. Life could easily be sustained in this land 
with its plenty of maize, which made "good savoury 
bread and cakes as fine as floure [flour]." 

The voyagers penetrated to the " River of May," 
now St. John's River, coming to the seat on its banks 
of Laudonniere's colony of French Huguenots. They 
had been established here for fourteen months, and 
were now in a wretched condition. The fleet anchored 
off their port, and Hawkins and his chief men going 
ashore were "very gently entertained" by Laudon- 
niere and his captains. The Frenchmen gave a pitiful 
account of the extremities to which the colony had been 
put for food. They had brought out a scant stock of 
provisions expecting to receive fresh supplies from 
France by ships that were to follow them with recruits. 
But these had not arrived. From two hundred strong 
at the beginning the colonists were now reduced by 
death and desertions to about half that number. They 
had early exhausted all the maize that they could buy 
of the natives. New supplies were got in return for 
the service of a number of their soldiers with a king of 
the Floridians in a tribal war. But the relief thus 
obtained was only temporary. When this supply had 
gone they resorted to acorns and roots. The acorns 
"stamped [crushed] small and often washed to take 



Hawkins in Florida 207 

away the bitterness" were used for bread; the roots 
as vegetables. Many of the roots albeit the sort that 
"served rather for medicine than for meats alone," 
they found to be "good and wholesome." They must, 
however, have had rich drink with this dull food, for 
Hawkins noted that during the fourteen months here 
they had made twenty hogsheads of wine from the 
native grapes. In the midst of the colony's distresses 
a rebellion arose. Some of the soldiers turned upon 
Laudonniere, seized his armour, and imprisoned him. 
Then taking a bark and a pinnace they set off, "to 
the number of fourscore," on a piratical cruise. They 
went "a roaming" to Jamaica and Hispaniola, spoil- 
ing the Spaniards. Having taken the caravels laden 
with wine and "casair [cassava], which is bread made 
of roots, and much other victuall and treasure," the 
marauding crew hovered about Jamaica, with frequent 
carousals on shore. At length their revels were cut 
short when a ship that had come out from Hispaniola 
bore down upon them. Twenty were taken prisoners, 
"whereof the most part were hanged, the rest sent to 
Spain." Some twenty-five escaped in the pinnace and 
returned to the colony. Upon landing they were 
thrown into prison, and four of the ringleaders were 
"hanged at a gibbet." Other troubles had come upon 
the colony through the enmity of natives, hitherto 
friendly, who had been robbed of maize by some of 
the colonists when nothing was left to barter for it. 
For such offences several Frenchmen had been seized 
by the Floridians and slain in the woods. When 



208 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Hawkins's fleet appeared the colony had not more 
than forty soldiers unhurt and "not above ten days' 
victuals" in store. 

Hawkins relieved their immediate wants with provi- 
sions and other comforts and offered to convey them 
back to France. The generous offer was declined with 
expressions of gratitude, and instead Laudonniere ar- 
ranged for the purchase of one of his ships, stocked with 
provisions, to make the home voyage independently. 
Then with mutual exchange of good wishes Hawkins 
departed for his homeward voyage. 

The tragic end of the hapless Huguenot colony was 
not far off. When shortly after Hawkins's departure, 
Laudonniere and his people were about to embark on 
the ship bought from him, sails were descried of the 
long-looked-for French fleet approaching their port. 
These welcome ships brought out Ribault to take the 
command, with emigrants in families, implements of 
husbandry, domestic animals, and every supply for a 
well-equipped colony. New life and hope were in- 
stilled into the colony by the new comers. Then sud- 
denly the terrible Pedro Menendez de Aviles burst upon 
them with an invading army of Spaniards and destroyed 
them with awful massacre, "Not as Frenchmen, but 
as Lutherans," as he proclaimed, only a few escaping, 
Laudonniere and Le Moyne, the artist of the colony 
(to whom we are indebted for the first drawings of 
American natives and scenes), among these, to tell the 
tale. And then, two years afterward, Menendez's act 
was avenged by the fiery soldier of Gascony, Dominic 



Hawkins in Florida 209 

de Gourgues, with massacre of Spaniards in Florida, 
"Not," as he in turn proclaimed, "as unto Spaniards 
but as unto Traitors, Robbers and Murderers." All 
this as told in the accounts of Laudonniere and others 
reproduced by Hakluyt, constitutes one of the saddest 
and bloodiest chapters in early American history. 

Hawkins's return voyage was tempestuous. Con- 
trary winds beset the fleet and so prolonged the passage 
that their provisions ran short. Relief was had, how- 
ever, on the banks of Newfoundland by a large take 
of cod; and farther along when two French ships were 
met sufficient supplies for the remainder of the voyage 
were bought from them. Home was at length reached 
on the twentieth of September, when the fleet arrived 
at Padstow, Cornwall. Commercially it had been a 
most prosperous voyage, for it had brought "great 
profit" not alone to the venturers but "to the whole 
realme." In addition to the gains from the unholy 
traffic in human beings Hawkins brought his ship 
home freighted with "great store" of gold, silver, 
pearls, and other jewels. Accordingly the chronicler 
reverently closes his account with the pious and doubt- 
less sincere prayer, " His Name therefore be praised for 
evermore Amen." 

A third voyage was soon planned, to be made over 
the same course, with a second visit to Florida. In 
this Francis Drake, a young kinsman of Hawkins, 
later destined to be the first Englishman to circum- 
navigate the globe, had part. It ended in disaster 
through conflict with a Spanish fleet in the Gulf of 



210 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Mexico, but its consequences were large in after per- 
formances, especially of Drake. 

The fleet assembled for this third voyage comprised 
six ships. The "admiral" was again the "Jesus of 
Lubec," commanded by Hawkins. Young Drake had 
charge of the smallest of the lot — the "Judith," a 
staunch little craft of only fifty tons. The others were 
the "Minion," the "William and John," the "Angel," 
and the "Swallow." Hakluyt gives us Hawkins's 
signed narrative of the adventure under a title fore- 
shadowing its unhappy nature: "The third trouble- 
some voyage made with the Jesus of Lubeck, the 
Minion, and foure other ships, to the parts of Guinea, 
and the West Indies, in the yeeres 1567 and 1568 by M. 
John Hawkins." 

The fleet left Plymouth on the second of October. 
After only a week out the first trouble came with a 
dispersion of the ships in an "extreme" storm, which 
raged for four days and with such damage to the 
"Jesus" that Hawkins felt obliged to turn her back 
homeward. Soon afterward, however, the wind veered 
and the weather cleared, when she was returned to the 
outward course. The other ships were met at the 
Canaries, where repairs were made. Again in sailing 
trim the hunt for Negroes was begun along the African 
coast. As before, the natives were found ready to 
fight for their liberty. Arrived at Cape Verde, Hawkins 
landed one hundred and fifty men, expecting to make 
a large catch here. But a battle ensued in which 
many of the English force, Hawkins among them, were 



Hawkins in Florida 21 1 

hurt, and several mortally, by the natives' envenomed 
arrows; and only a few captures were made. Similar 
luck followed down to Sierra Leone, scarcely one 
hundred and fifty Negroes having been got together. 
Since this number was too small profitably to take to 
the West Indies, and it was now quite time to get away, 
Hawkins decided to give over further quest and to go 
to the "coast of the Mine" (the Gold Coast) in the 
hope of obtaining enough gold for his merchandise at 
least to meet the expenses of the voyage. But just as 
this decision was reached it was overruled by an un- 
expected opening to more captures. A messenger 
from a Negro " king " at war with neighbouring " kings " 
came aboard the flag-ship asking the Englishmen's aid 
in his war, with the promise that all the natives he 
might capture should be "at their pleasure" as well as 
those taken by them. The proposal was eagerly ac- 
cepted and one hundred and twenty men were sent 
ashore to join the king's forces. The allies began an 
assault upon a fortified town of eight thousand inhabi- 
tants. It was, however, so strongly impaled, and so 
valiantly defended, that they could not prevail against 
it. Six of the English were killed and forty wounded 
in this attack, and reinforcements were called for. 
Thereupon Hawkins himself took a hand. An assault 
now opened both by land and sea, Hawkins with the 
king leading the land attack. Shortly the frail little 
houses, covered with dry palm leaves, were set afire 
and the inhabitants put to flight. So the town fell. 
Hawkins and his men captured two hundred and fifty 



212 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

of the fleeing people, men, women, and children, while 
the king's men took six hundred. Of the king's lot 
Hawkins was expecting to take his pick, when, lo! 
during the following night the artful monarch secretly 
moved his camp and stole away with all of his prisoners. 

This breach of faith scandalized Hawkins and led 
him to write down that in the Negro "nation is seldome 
or never found truth." But later during this "trouble- 
some" voyage he was to experience a greater treachery, 
and one more disastrous in its results, on the part of 
representatives of a civilized nation, as we shall pres- 
ently see. 

Having, with his acquisitions from the spoiled town 
and a few other takings, a cargo of between four and 
five hundred Negroes, Hawkins set his fleet without 
further delay on his original course. The West Indies 
were duly reached, at the island of Dominica, toward 
the close of March, after a harder passage than before. 
They coasted from place to place, making their traffic 
with the planters "somewhat hardly," because the 
Spanish governors had been more strictly commanded 
to suffer no trade with foreigners. Still they did a 
fairly thriving business, and had "courteous entertain- 
ment" all along from the island of Margarita to Car- 
tagena, "without anything greatly worth the noting," 
saving at Rio de la Hacha — the same where the sharpest 
opposition had been met on the previous voyage. The 
officer in authority here not only denied them permis- 
sion to trade, but would not suffer them even to stop 
and take water. The place, too, was found to be newly 



Hawkins in Florida 213 

fortified with "divers bulwarks." No time was wasted 
in arguments at this port. Two hundred men were 
put ashore and the bulwarks stormed. They were 
speedily broken through with a loss to the Englishmen 
of only two men, and none at all to the Spaniards, for 
"after their voly of shot discharged they all fled." No 
further obstacles appearing, a semi-secret trade was 
opened and carried on briskly till two hundred of the 
Negroes had been sold. When Cartegena was reached 
the Negroes had been nearly all disposed of. 

Leaving this point on the twenty-fourth of July 
Hawkins sailed the fleet northward, hoping to escape 
the dangers of the season of hurricanes, and to do some 
profitable trading in that direction. On the twelfth of 
August they were passing the west end of Cuba, toward 
the Florida coast, when a fierce storm struck them. 
The gale continued through four days, causing havoc 
among the fleet, and most seriously afflicting the" Jesus." 
She was so "beat" that all her "higher buildings" had 
to be cut down. Her rudder was also "sore shaken," 
and she was "in so extreme a leake" that it was feared 
she must be abandoned. Yet "hoping to bring all to 
good passe" they sped on for Florida. But no haven 
could be found into which the ships could enter, be- 
cause of the shallowness of the water. While off this 
coast a second storm burst upon them and raged for 
three days. In this extremity their only alternative 
was to make across the Gulf of Mexico for the port of 
"Sant John de Ullua [San Juan d'Ulloa, the port of 
Vera Cruz], which serveth the citie of Mexico," in 



214 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

"New Spain." On the way they fell in with three 
ships carrying an hundred passengers, and with these 
they kept helpful company, hoping that the passengers 
would be "a meane" to them the better to obtain a 
quiet place for the repairing of the fleet, and to purchase 
supplies. 

This port was safely reached on the sixteenth of 
September and being mistaken for an expected fleet 
from Spain their reception was most cordial. But 
when upon coming aboard the "admiral" the Spanish 
officers discovered their mistake they were "greatly 
dismayed" till Hawkins assured them that only stress 
of weather had brought him hither and that he desired 
"nothing but victuals." In the same little port were 
found anchored twelve Spanish ships which "had in 
them by report 200,000 pounds in gold and silver." 
For the moment Hawkins with his superior force had 
control of things. But although these tempting ships, 
as he says, were in his "possession," together with the 
passenger-ships that had come with him, and he also 
held an island guarding the mouth of the harbour, he 
magnanimously set them "at libertie without taking 
from them the weight of a groat." This was done, 
however, not through any excess of virtue on his part, 
but, as he frankly explains, "onely because I could not 
be delayed of my despatch." Since his needs were 
urgent, and also because some authoritative under- 
standing was imperative to prevent collision with the 
Spanish fleet daily expected, he immediately despatched 
a messenger to the "Presidente [the Spanish viceroy] 



Hawkins in Florida 215 

and Councill," at the distant city of Mexico, with report 
of his arrival at this port by the force of weather, and 
the necessity for repairs to his vessels, and provisions 
for his company, which they asked as peaceful Eng- 
lishmen, "friends to King Philip," to be furnished 
them for their money; and also with a request that 
the viceroy should issue "with all convenient speede," 
commands for the "better maintenance of amitie" 
between the expected Spanish fleet and his own, that 
no cause of quarrel need arise. Meanwhile he retained 
on his ship "two men of estimation" from those who 
had come aboard at his arrival. The messenger left 
for Mexico at the close of his first day in port, and the 
very next morning the Spanish fleet, "thirteene great 
shippes," hove in sight. 

Action was now necessary on Hawkins's part without 
waiting the movements of the local officials, and it was 
promptly taken directly with the general of the fleet. 
Hawkins held the point of advantage. The Spanish 
fleet could not enter the port while he commanded the 
entrance. This was the situation as he defined it. 
"It is to be understood that this Port is made by a 
little Hand of stones not three foote above the water 
in the highest place, and but a bow-shoot of length any 
way: this Hand standeth from the maine land two 
bow-shootes or more; also it is to be understood that 
there is not in all this coast any other place for ships 
to arrive in safety, because the North winde hath there 
such violence that unlesse the shippes be very safely 
mored with their ankers fasted upon this Hand, there 



2i 6 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

is no remedie for these North windes but death: also 
the place of the Haven is so little that of necessitie the 
shippes must ride one aboord the other, so that we 
could not give place to them or they to us." But 
strong as his position was, it was also embarrassing, and 
he found himself on the horns of a dilemma: "and 
here I beganne to bewaile that which after followed, 
for now, said I, I am in two dangers, and forced to 
receive the one of them. That was, either I must have 
kept out the fleete from entring the Port, the which with 
Gods helpe I was very well able to doe, or else suffer 
them to enter in with their accustomed treason, which 
they never faile to execute where they may have oppor- 
tunitie to compasse it by any meanes: if I had kept them 
out, then had there bene present shipwrack of all the 
fleete which amounted in value to sixe Millions, which 
was in value of our money 1,800,000 li., which I con- 
sidered I was not able to answere, fearing the Queenes 
Majesties indignation in so weightie a matter. Thus 
with my selfe revolving the doubts, I thought rather 
better to abide the Jutt [jut — push or thrust] of the un- 
certainty, then [than] the certaintie. The uncertaine 
doubt I account was their treason which by good 
policie I hoped might be prevented, and therefore by 
chusing the least mischiefe I proceeded to condi- 
tions." 

His first move was the sending of a messenger to the 
Spanish general with courteous greetings, advising 
him of the circumstances of the presence of the Eng- 
lish fleet, and desiring him to understand that before 



Hawkins in Florida 217 

he could be suffered to enter the port some order of 
conditions should pass between them for the safety of 
the English fleet and the maintenance of peace. This 
messenger returned with the report that a viceroy was 
on the fleet (Don Martin Henriques, coming out as a 
successor of the one at Mexico), who had authority 
"both in all this Province of Mexico, otherwise Neva 
Espanna, and in the sea," and that this official had 
requested Hawkins's conditions, promising on his part 
that they should be "both favourably granted and 
faithfully performed," with "many faire wordes," or 
compliments, as to favourable things he had heard of 
Hawkins. These conditions were despatched forth- 
with: victuals for their money; license to sell as much 
of their wares as might furnish their wants; twelve 
gentlemen from either side as hostages for the main- 
tenance of peace; the island to remain in their posses- 
sion during their stay, for their "better safetie," with 
the ordnance they had planted there: eleven brass 
pieces; and orders issued that no Spaniard should land 
at the island with any kind of weapon. 

The viceroy at first "somewhat misliked" the condi- 
tion as to the guard of the island in the keeping of the 
Englishmen; but in the end he acceded to them all, 
with the exception that the number of hostages was cut 
to ten. The agreement was then put in writing and 
sealed with the viceroy's seal: the hostages were re- 
ceived on either side; the orders were duly proclaimed 
with trumpet blasts; the two generals met and "gave 
faith ech to other for the performances of the premisses; 



21 8 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

and then the Spanish fleet passed into the harbour, each 
fleet saluting the other "as the maner of the sea doth 
require." 

All went well for nearly three days. Two of the three 
were spent in "placing the English ships by themselves 
and the Spanish ships by themselves, the captaines of 
ech part & inferiour men of their parts promising 
great amity on al sides." But with all the show of 
faithfulness to the agreement the Spaniards were 
plotting mischief. A thousand men from the main- 
land were being secretly taken on their ships, and they 
were proposing, on the third day, at dinner time, sud- 
denly to set upon the Englishmen on all sides. 

On the morning of this third day the Englishmen's 
suspicion was aroused by various activities on the 
Spanish ships: "as shifting of weapon from ship to 
ship, planting and bending of ordnance from the ships 
to the Hand where our men warded, passing to and fro 
of companies of men more then [than] required for 
their necessary busines, & many other ill likelihoods." 
Hawkins sent a peremptory demand to the viceroy for 
an explanation of these goings on. His reply was the 
issue of a "commandement to unplant all things sus- 
picious," and an assurance to Hawkins that "he in 
the faith of a Viceroy would be our defence from all 
villanies." But Hawkins and his chiefs were not satis- 
fied with this assurance for they now "suspected a great 
number of men to be hid in a great ship of nine hun- 
dred tunnes which was mored next unto the Minion." 
A second messenger was sent, this time the master of 



Hawkins in Florida 



219 



the "Jesus," who could speak Spanish, to demand of 
the viceroy "if any such thing were or were not." 
This brought matters to a crisis. "The Viceroy now 
seeing that the treason must be discovered foorthwith 
stayed [held] our master, blew the Trumpet, and of all 
sides set upon us." 

Desperately brief as was the time for preparation, 
the English ships had been made ready for the awful 
assault. But the men on the island were taken quite 
unawares, and abandoning their guns fell a quick prey 
to their onrushing assailants. The story of the un- 
equal battle Hawkins graphically relates with soldier- 
like brevity. 

" Our men which warded a shore being stricken with 
sudden feare, gave place, fled, and sought to recover 
succour of our ships; the Spaniardes being before 
provided for the purpose landed in all places in mul- 
titudes from their ships which they might easily doe 
without boates, and slewe all our men a shore without 
mercie, a fewe of them escaped aboord the Jesus. The 
great ship which had by the estimation three hundred 
men placed in her secretly, immediately fel aboord the 
Minion, but by Gods appointment, in the time of the 
suspicion we had, which was onely one halfe houre, the 
Minion was made readie to avoide, and so leesing her 
hedfasts, and hayling away by the sternefastes she was 
gotten out: thus with Gods helpe she defended the 
violence of the first brunt of these three hundred men. 
The Minion being past out, they came aboord the Jesus, 
which also with very much a doe and the losse of manie 



220 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

of our men were defended and kept out. Then there 
were also two other ships that assaulted the Jesus at 
the same instant, so that she had hard getting loose, 
but yet with some time we had cut our headfastes and 
gotten out by the sternefastes. 

"Nowe when the Jesus and the Minion were gotten 
about two shippes length from the Spanish fleete the 
fight beganne so hotte on all sides that within one houre 
the Admirall of the Spaniards was supposed to be sunke, 
their Viceadmirall burned, and one other of their prin- 
cipall ships supposed to be sunke, so that the shippes 
were little able to annoy us." But the guns on the 
island which had fallen into the Spaniards' hands, 
were worked with direful results. All the masts and 
yards of the "Jesus" were so cut by their shot that 
"there was no hope to carrie her away"; and one of 
the small ships was sunk. Thereupon it was decided 
to bring the battered "Jesus" to the land side of the 
"Minion" and use her as a defence for the "Minion" 
against the batteries, till night, and then to shift as 
much of her provisions and other necessities to the 
"Minion" as time would permit, and abandon her. 
But just as the "Jesus" had been so placed alongside 
the "Minion," suddenly the Spaniards had "fired two 
great shippes which were comming directly with" them. 
Having no means to avoid the fire this " bredde among 
our men a marvellous feare, so that some sayd let us 
depart with the Minion, other said, let us see whither 
[whether] the winde will carrie the fire from us." 
Then "the Minions men which had alwayes their 



Hawkins in Florida 221 

sayles in a readinesse, thought to make sure worke, and 
so without either consent of the Captaine or Master 
cut their saile, so that very hardly I was received into 
the Minion. The most part of the men that were left 
alive in the Jesus made shift and followed the Minion 
in a small boat, the rest which the little boate was not 
able to receive, were inforced to abide the mercie of the 
Spaniards (which I doubt was very little) so that with 
the Minion only and the Judith [Drake's little bark] 
we escaped." 

Throughout the engagement Hawkins was at the 
fore, and his coolness was superb, as this dramatic in- 
cident at the height of the action, quaintly related by 
one of the survivors, Job Hartop, shows: "Our Gen- 
erall couragiously cheered up his souldiers and gunners, 
and called to Samuel his page for a cup of Beere, who 
brought it to him in a silver cup; and hee, drinking it 
to all men, willed the gunners to stand by their ord- 
nance lustily like men. He had no sooner set the cup 
out of his hand but a demy Culverin shot stroke away 
the cup and a Coopers plane that stoode by the maine 
mast, and ranne out on the other side of the ship; 
which nothing dismaied our Generall, for he ceased 
not to incourage us, saying ' feare nothing, for God who 
hath preserved me from this shot, will also deliver us 
from these traitours and villaines.'" 

That night the "Minion" rode only two "bow- 
shootes" off" from the Spanish ships with her crowded 
company. During the night the "Judith" "forsake" 
them in their "great miserie," as Hawkins wrote; but 



222 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

it was afterward stated that she had lost sight of the 
"Minion" in the confusion of the disaster. The fol- 
lowing morning the "Minion" attained an island about 
a mile from the scene of the furious action, and the 
fugitives hoped for a little relief. But here the dreaded 
north wind took them; "and being left onely with two 
ankers and two cables (for in this conflict we lost three 
cables and two ankers)," they "thought alwayes upon 
death which ever was present." On the next day, 
however, the "weather waxed reasonable" and they 
again set sail. For fourteen days "with many sorow- 
ful hearts" they wandered about the gulf till hunger 
enforced them to seek the land. At this time such were 
their straits that "hides were thought very good meat, 
rats, cats, mice, and dogs, none escaped that might be 
gotten, parrats and monkeyes that were had in great 
price, were thought there very profitable if they served 
the turne [of] one dinner." They at length came to land 
in the bottom of the gulf, but it afforded them no haven 
of relief or place where they could repair the "sore 
beaten" ship. But they were able to take on a supply 
of fresh water. Here a number desired to remain and 
take their chances in the unknown country. Accord- 
ingly Hawkins divided the crowded company. "Such 
as were willing to land I put them apart, and such as 
were desirous to go homewardes I put apart, so that 
they were indifferently parted a hundred of one side 
and a hundred of the other side: these hundred men 
we set a land with all diligence in this little place 
beforesaid, which being landed, we determined there to 



Hawkins in Florida 223 

take in fresh water, and so with our little remaine of 
victuals to take the sea." 

They departed hence with their lighter load on the 
sixteenth of October. A month later they were " clear 
from the coast of the Indies and out of the channel and 
gulf of Bahama." Afterward approaching the "cold 
country" many of the company "oppressed with 
famine" died, while those that were left "grew into 
such Weaknesses" that they were scarcely able to 
manage the ship. Shortly new perils came upon them. 
"The winde alwayes ill for us to recover England, we 
determined to goe with Galicia in Spaine, with intent 
there to relieve our companie and other extreame wantes. 
And being arrived the last day of December in a place 
neere unto Vigo called Ponte Vedra, our men with 
excesse of fresh meate grew into miserable diseases, 
and died a great part of them. This matter was borne 
out as long as it might be, but in the end although 
there were none of our men suffered to goe a land, yet 
by accesse of the Spaniards our feeblenesse was knowen 
to them. Whereupon they ceased not to seeke by all 
meanes to betray us." To escape this danger they 
made with all speed for Vigo. Here at last fortune 
favoured them. With the help of some English ships 
in this port and "twelve fresh men" they "repaired 
their wants" sufficiently to complete the voyage; and 
on the twenty-fifth of January, 1568/9 the "Minion" 
entered Mounts Bay, Cornwall, and the worn and shat- 
tered survivors were at home. 

"If all the miseries and troublesome affaires of this 



224 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

sorowful voyage should be perfectly and throughly 
written," Hawkins opined in closing his narration, 
"there should neede a painefull man with his pen, and 
as great a time as he had that wrote the lives and 
deathes of the Martyrs." 

The tribulations of the hundred and more men who 
were landed in the Gulf of Mexico to shift for them- 
selves, and the marvellous adventures of those who 
lived through awful hardships, were related in large 
detail by three of them: Miles Philips, David Ingram, 
and Job Hartop. The tales of Philips and Hartop fill 
many of Hakluyt's ample pages. Both supplement 
Hawkins's official report of the San Juan d'Ulloa affair 
in small particulars. Philips told of miseries sustained 
by himself and companions among savage people; of 
their ultimate falling into the Spaniards' hands; of how 
they were worked as slaves; how they were reviled as 
"English dogs and Lutheran heretics," suffered the 
Inquisition, which was brought into "New Spain" 
while they were there, and were hardly used in the 
"religious houses"; and how some of them escaped 
after years of bondage. Philips also told of meeting in 
the city of Mexico the English hostages whom Hawkins 
had given at San Juan d'Ulloa. They were there 
prisoners in the viceroy's house. After four months' 
imprisonment they were sent to Spain, where, Philips 
had heard it "credibly reported," many of them died 
"with the cruel handling of the Spaniards in the In- 
quisition house." In Mexico, too, and at the viceroy's 
house, Captain Barret, the captured master of the 



Hawkins in Florida 225 

"Jesus," was found. He also was afterward sent to 
Spain, and suffered the Inquisition; and at the last 
that Philips had heard, he was condemned to be 
burned, and with him another of Hawkins's men named 
John Gilbert. Philips got back to England and told 
his story in 1582. Hartop was one of the gunners of 
the "Jesus." The sum of his experiences covered 
twenty-three years, and included two years' imprison- 
ment in Mexico; a year in an Inquisition house in 
Spain; twelve years in the galleys; four years in the 
"everlasting prison remidilesse" with the "coat of St. 
Andrews cross on his back"; and three years a " drudge" 
to the treasurer of the king's mint. Ingram's ex- 
periences were the most marvellous of all, according to 
his narration, and the things that he saw, or imagined 
he saw, were amazing. He told of travelling with two 
companions afoot along the coast of North America, 
from the Gulf of Mexico to near Cape Breton. He 
averred that he "never continued in any one place above 
three or four days, saving in the city of Balma," wher- 
ever that may have been, where he tarried about a 
week. He saw fair dwellings topped with "banquet- 
ting houses" built with "pillars of massy silver and 
crystal"; many strange peoples; wondrous beasts, 
elephants, a "monster beast twice as big as a horse," 
another "bigger than a bear," with neither head nor 
neck, the eyes and mouth in the breast; and many 
strange birds, "thrice as big as an eagle and beautiful 
to behold." Hakluyt gave his story in the first edition 
of the Principal Navigations, but left it out of the later 



226 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

editions, because, as Purchas in his Pilgrimies after- 
ward explained, of some of its "incredibilities": the 
"reward of lying," Purchas observes, "being not to 
be believed in truths." 

Hawkins made no more voyages for a period of two 
decades. In 1572 he was returned to Parliament from 
Plymouth, and the next year was made treasurer of the 
navy. He was a vice-admiral in the fleet against the 
Spanish Armada (1588), commanding the "Victory," 
and he was created a knight for his effective services 
in that great engagement. His last voyage was made 
in 1595, again with Drake, and once more against the 
Spanish West Indies: and there he died, at Porto 
Rico, on the twelfth of November that year. 

Drake returned from the bitter experience at San 
Juan d'Ulloa the implacable foe of Spaniards. After 
fruitless efforts to obtain compensation from Spain for 
his losses in the San Juan affair, he determined on a 
campaign of revenge, and in 1570 he was found again 
at sea on the forerunner of astonishing voyages of 
reprisal. 

From these buccaneering expeditions he was led to 
his greater exploit in "ploughing a furrow" round the 
globe, with the incidental discovery of California for 
the English. 



XVI 

DRAKE'S GREAT EXPLOITS 

FRANCIS DRAKE was born near Tavistock, 
Devonshire, where a colossal statue of the great 
navigator now stands. The date of his birth is 
uncertain. By local tradition it is given as about 1545, 
and this is generally accepted by his later biographers, 
but some authorities place it five years earlier. Au- 
thorities also differ as to his parentage. Some con- 
temporary writers aver that his father was Robert 
Drake, first a sailor, afterward a preacher; according 
to others he was Edmond or Edmund Drake, also a 
sailor turned preacher, who, in 1560, became vicar of 
Upchurch in Kent, and died there in 1566. The 
second Sir Francis Drake, nephew of the navigator, 
related of the father that he suffered persecution, and 
"being forced to fly from his home near South Tavis- 
tocke in Devon unto Kent," was there obliged "to 
inhabit in the hull of a shippe, wherein many of his 
younger sonnes were born." He had twelve sons in 
all, "and as it pleased God to give most of them a 
being on the water so the great part of them dyed at 

sea." William Camden, the contemporary historian 

227 



228 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

and antiquarian, recorded that the father, after coming 
to Kent, earned his living by reading prayers to the 
seamen of the fleet in the River Medway. 

When yet a boy Francis Drake was a trained sailor. 
He was early apprenticed to the master of a bark em- 
ployed in a coasting trade, and sometimes carrying 
merchandise into Zealand and France. The youth's 
industry and aptness in this business, says Camden, so 
"pleased the old man," his master, that, "being a 
bachelor, at his death he bequeathed his bark unto him 
by will and testament." At twenty, assuming the true 
date of his birth to have been about 1545, he joined 
with one Captain John Lovell in a trading voyage to 
Guinea and across to the West Indies and the Spanish 
Main. The next year, 1566, they made a second voy- 
age to the same points, and on the Spanish Main, at 
Rio del Hacha, they suffered losses through the Span- 
iards. Doubtless the knowledge gained in these two 
voyages made him particularly serviceable to his kins- 
man, John Hawkins, and brought him the command 
of the " Judith " in their fatal voyage of the following 
year. He is said to have invested in this disastrous 
venture the whole of his little property acquired in his 
previous voyages and in the earlier coasting trade, and 
to have lost it all through the affair at San Juan d'Ulloa. 

Upon reaching home with the "Judith," bringing 
the first news of the fate .of this expedition, he was 
immediately, on the very night of his arrival, des- 
patched to London by Hawkins's brother William, at 
that time governor of Plymouth, to inform the privy 




"; • "■'■'•' .■:■■■ 



SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 



Drake's Great Exploits 229 

council and Sir William Cecil, then the secretary of 
state, "of the whole proceedings," "to the end that the 
queen might be advertised of the same." Thus he 
was brought to the attention of the influential minister 
and, indirectly, to the favour of the court. At least he 
was given the support of letters from the queen in the 
move that he at once instituted for recompense from 
Spain for his losses. When at length he had become 
satisfied that nothing could be obtained through diplo- 
matic councils, he determined to "use such helps as 
he might" to redress by ravaging the Spanish Main on 
his own account. Accordingly he first made two voy- 
ages in succession, the one in 1570 with two small 
ships, the "Dragon" and the "Swan," the other in 
1571 with the "Swan" alone, particularly to obtain 
"certain notice of the persons and places aimed at." 
These reconnoitring expeditions convinced him that 
the towns would fall an easy prey to a small armed 
force, and were also gainful in plunder taken off the 
coast along the way. Thereupon he promptly ar- 
ranged for his freebooting voyage, to avenge not only 
the San Juan d'Ulloa affair but the earlier one at Rio 
del Hacha. 

For daring and audacity this voyage was astonishing, 
and its results were quick wealth to Drake and renown 
as a masterful man of the sea. Two ships, the "Swan" 
of the previous voyages, and the "Pasha," a larger 
vessel, of seventy tons, with three "dainty" pinnaces 
in parts, stowed in the holds of the ships to be set up 
when occasion served, comprised the equipment. 



230 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Drake sailed the "Pasha" as the "admiral," while one 
of his brothers, John Drake, was captain of the "Swan" 
as "vice-admiral" of the fleet. Another brother, 
Joseph Drake, went along as a sailor. The company 
numbered in all seventy-three men and boys. All were 
volunteers, and all were under thirty years of age, 
excepting one who was not over fifty. The ships were 
well provisioned for a year, and they were fully armed, 
each like a man-of-war of that day. Although the en- 
terprise was ostensibly Drake's alone, it had a sub- 
stantial backing furnished by influential silent part- 
ners. 

The expedition set sail from Plymouth on Whitsun- 
day eve, the twenty-fourth of May, 1572, with intent 
first to raid Nombre de Dios, on the north coast of the 
Isthmus of Darien, then "the granary of the West 
Indies wherein the golden harvest brought from Peru 
and Mexico was hoarded up till it could be conveyed 
into Spain." On the sixth of July the high land of 
Santa Marta was sighted, and six days later the ships 
were anchored in a secret harbour within the Gulf of 
Darien, framed in a luxuriant mass of trees and vine, 
which Drake had discovered on his second reconnoit- 
ring voyage, and called "Port Pheasant," "by reason 
of the great store of these goodly fowls which he and 
his company did then daily kill and feed upon" here. 
It is supposed to have been the Puerto Escondido, or 
"Hidden Haven" of the Spaniards. Upon entering it 
was seen that the nest had very recently been occu- 
pied, and, landing, Drake found nailed to a great tree 



Drake's Great Exploits 231 

a lead plate upon which was posted a warning that 
their rendezvous had been discovered by the Spaniards, 
signed John Gannet, and dated five days before. 
Gannet was presumably the former master of the 
"Minion," of Hawkins's ill-fortuned fleet. He had 
come out to the Spanish Main on a voyage of his own 
shortly before the sailing of Drake. Undisturbed by 
this warning Drake put his carpenters to work at setting 
up the pinnaces, and the rest of the company at fortify- 
ing the place with ramparts of trees. In the meantime 
there sailed into the snug harbour another English 
bark. This was captained by James Rouse, the former 
master of the lost "William and John" of the Hawkins 
expedition. He also had sailed on a part trading and 
part buccaneering voyage before Drake had left Plym- 
outh. His company numbered thirty men, some of 
whom had been in Drake's second reconnoitring voy- 
age. They brought in two small prizes, one a caravel 
of Seville, a despatch boat, bound for Nombre de Dios, 
which they had captured the previous day, the other 
a shallop taken at Cape Blanc. Rouse joined forces 
with Drake. 

Having got the pinnaces and all things in readiness 
within a week's time, the fleet was ofF for their first 
foray. Coming to the Isla de Pinos (Isles of Pines), a 
group at the mouth of the Gulf of Darien (called by 
them "Port Plenty"), they found here two frigates for 
Nombre de Dios lading planks and timber, with a 
number of black men on board at work. These blacks 
were half-breeds, belonging to a local tribe sprung from 



232 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

self-freed Negro slaves and native Indians, known as 
"Cimaroons," or "Maroons," as the English sailors 
termed them, enrolled under two chiefs, and constant 
enemies of the Spanish. The frigates were seized, and 
the black men were taken to the mainland and set 
ashore to join their tribe and gain their liberty if they 
would, or, if they were disposed to warn Nombre de 
Dios, to make the troublesome journey overland, which 
they could not finish before the Englishmen could reach 
the place by sea. Then leaving the three ships with 
the prize in charge of Captain Rouse, and taking fifty- 
three of his own men and twenty of Rouse's band, and 
adding Rouse's shallop to his fleet of pinnaces, Drake 
"hastened his own going with speed and secrecy." 
Five days later they had arrived at the island of "Cati- 
vaas" (Catives), off the mouth of the St. Francis, to 
the westward of which Nombre de Dios lay. Here 
they landed and spent part of a day making ready for 
the assault. Drake distributed the arms among the 
men and delivered a heartening speech setting before 
them the "greatness of the hope of good things" in 
this store house of treasure which might be theirs for 
the taking. That afternoon they again set sail and at 
sunset they were alongside the main. Keeping "hard 
aboard the shore" that they might not be "descried of 
the Watch House," they made their cautious way till 
they had come within two leagues of the port. At 
this point they anchored till after dark. Then again 
"rowing hard aboard shore," as quietly as they could, 
they attained a sheltered place in the harbour under 



Drake's Great Exploits 233 

high land, where they lay "all silent," purposing to 
make the attack at daylight. When, however, talk of 
the "greatness of the town" and of its strength for de- 
fence, based upon stories told by the blacks at the Isles 
of Pines, was found to be spreading among the men, 
Drake "thought it best to put these conceits out of 
their heads," by prompter action, taking advantage of 
the rising of the moon that night which he would per- 
suade them "was the day dawning." By this strategy 
the advance was begun at three o'clock, a "large houre 
sooner than first was purposed." 

The surprise of the town was complete. As the four 
pinnaces were sailing forward, the rowers noiselessly 
plying their oars, a Spanish ship laden with Canary 
wines, newly arrived in the bay, espied them, and 
immediately sent off one of her boats townward, evi- 
dently to give an alarm. But Drake dexterously 
checked this move by cutting "betwixt her and the 
Towne forcing her to goe to the other side of the bay." 
At the landing place a platform was found fortified 
with "six great pieces of ordnance mounted upon the 
carriages," but only a single gunner on guard. The 
gunner fled to arouse the town, while Drake's men 
dismantled the guns. Then Drake marched his men 
up a neighbouring hill, where he had heard that ord- 
nance was to be placed that night, to dismantle it if 
found. But none had yet been set, and he hurried 
back now to make direct for the town's treasure. 
Leaving a guard at the platform to secure the pinnaces, 
and a trumpeter to sound his trumpet at intervals 



234 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

while the other trumpeters were sounding theirs in 
other parts, to give an impression of a large force of 
besiegers, Drake divided his men into two companies. 
One, of sixteen men, under his brother John, was to 
execute a flank movement upon the King's Treasure 
House near by; the other, led by himself, was to march 
up the broad main street to the Market Place, where 
the two were to come together. Meanwhile the alarm- 
bell of the church had been set a-ringing by an official 
of the town, drums were beating, and the startled 
people were mustering in the Market Place, their first 
thought being that their common enemy, the Cima- 
roons, were upon them. 

Drake led his men with trumpets playing and drums 
beating, and their "firepikes" lighting the way, into 
the Market Place, and were here "saluted" by a body 
of Spanish soldiers and people lined up near the Gov- 
ernor's House, with a "jolly hot volley of shot." The 
Englishmen returned this "greeting" with a flight of 
arrows. Then they brought their firepikes and their 
short weapons into effective play, and soon routed the 
town's defenders, who fled out of the gate — the only 
gate of the town — leading toward Panama. In this 
skirmish Drake received a painful wound in the leg. 
But he valiantly concealed his hurt, "knowing if the 
generall's heart stoops the men's will fail." Now 
making their stand in the Market Place, Drake com- 
manded two or three Spaniards whom he had taken 
prisoner in the flight to conduct him with a detachment 
to the Governor's House. It was here that the long 



Drake's Great Exploits 235 

teams of mules bringing the king's treasure from 
Panama were unladen and the silver placed, while the 
gold, pearls, and jewels were deposited in the stronger- 
built (of lime and stone) King's Treasure House. The 
door of the Governor's House was found open, and 
before it a fine Spanish horse, ready saddled. Enter- 
ing, by means of a lighted candle on the stairs, they saw 
a vast heap of silver in the lower room. This consisted 
of silver bars piled up against the wall, some "seventy 
feet in length, ten in breadth, and twelve in height, 
each bar between thirty and forty pounds weight," as 
they calculated, about the value of "a million sterling." 
Drake ordered his men not to attempt to take any of 
this plunder, for the town was so full of people that it 
would be impossible to remove it; but at the King's 
Treasure House, near the water side, he told them 
there was "more gold and jewels than all of" their 
"four pinnaces could carry away"; and he would 
presently send out a force to break it open. 

Accordingly they returned to the Market Place, 
thence to go for the Treasure House. Back in the 
Market Place they received a startling report that their 
pinnaces were in danger of capture. John Drake was 
hurried to the landing with a guard to meet this emer- 
gency. He found the force there much alarmed by a 
report of a Negro spy that the Spanish soldiers which 
the blacks at the Isles of Pines had told them had been 
ordered from Panama, to defend the town from an 
expected attack of the Cimaroons, had arrived. John 
Drake quieted their fears. Now a new trouble arose. 



236 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

A "mighty shower of rain" with a "terrible storm of 
thunder and lightning" burst upon the town. Drake 
and his men sought shelter near the King's Treasure 
House. But before they had got under cover some of 
their bow-strings were wet, and their match and powder 
hurt. Some of the men began "harping on the reports 
lately brought" and "muttering of the forces of the 
town." Thereupon Drake exclaimed that here he 
had brought them to the "mouth of the Treasure of the 
World," and if they did not gain it they "might hence- 
forth blame nobody but themselves." So soon as the 
fury of the storm had abated Drake ordered John 
Drake and John Oxenham, another officer, to break 
open the Treasure House, the rest to follow him to 
"keep the strength" of the Market Place till their work 
was done. But as he stepped forward he suddenly fell 
prone in a swoon from loss of blood from his wound, 
which to this moment he had successfully concealed. 
This produced consternation among the band. Upon 
his revival his scarf was bound about the wound, and 
he was entreated to go aboard his pinnace to have it 
dressed. He persistently refused, and finally, "with 
force mingled with fair entreaty" he was seized and 
borne to his boat. Then all hurriedly embarked and 
got away, with what little plunder a few had managed 
to pick up. 

So was abandoned "a rich spoil for the present," 
but "only to preserve their captain's life." It was 
afterward admitted by the Spaniards that but for the 
mishap to Drake necessitating their precipitate de- 



Drake's Great Exploits 237 

parture, the buccaneers would have fully succeeded in 
sacking the town. 

It was but daybreak when they left. They had be- 
sides the captain "many of their men wounded, though 
none slain but one trumpeter." On their way out of 
the harbour they tarried long enough to capture, 
"without much resistance," the Spanish ship lying 
there with her cargo of wines, " for the more comfort 
of the company." Before they had quite cleared the 
haven the Spaniards on shore had got one of the great 
guns into play upon them. But the shot fell short of 
their boats. They landed with their prize at the Isle 
of Bartimentos, or, as they called it, the "Isle of Vict- 
uals," westward of Nombre de Dios. Here they stayed 
through the next two days to " cure their wounded and 
refresh themselves" in the "goodly gardens" they found 
"abounding with great store of all dainty roots and 
fruits, besides great plenty of poultry and other fowls 
no less strange and delicate." Return was then made 
to the Isles of Pines, where Captain Rouse with their 
ships was joined. 

Thus the incident of the famous raid upon Nombre 
de Dios, the first object of the expedition, closed with 
small gain. Hakluyt gives a brief and incomplete 
account of it, written and recorded, as his title relates, 
by "one Lopez Vaz a Portugall, borne in the citie of 
Elvas, in maner follow: which Portugale, with the dis- 
course about him, was taken in the River of Plate by 
the ships set foorth by the Right Honourable the Earle 
of Cumberland, in the yeere 1586." The larger ac- 



238 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

count, which Drake himself is said to have "reviewed," 
or edited, was not published until more than half a 
century after the event. It then appeared in a history 
of the expedition, brought out in 1626, under this in- 
spiriting title: Sir Francis Drake Revived; Calling 
upon this Dull or Effeminate Age to follow his noble 
steps for Gold and Silver, By this Memorable Relation of 
the Rare Occurrences {never yet declared to the world) 
in a third voyage made by him unto the West Indies, 
in the years 1572 & 1573 when N ombre de Dios was 
by him, and 52 others only in his company, Surprised. 

Subsequent exploits made up for the failure to loot 
the "Treasure of the World." Shortly after the return 
to the Isles of Pines Captain Rouse parted company 
with the expedition and went his own way, while Drake 
continued his enterprise alone, as he had originally 
planned. His next assault was to be against Cartagena. 
Toward this port he at once sailed his own fleet, the 
two ships and the three pinnaces. Arriving in the 
harbour he found here a "great ship of Seville" making 
ready to sail for San Domingo. This he took in sight 
of the town, but beyond the reach of its "great guns," 
which opened upon him. The next morning he capt- 
ured two frigates from Nombre de Dios for Cartagena, 
on board of which were two "Scrivanos" (escribano, a 
notary), with letters reporting his attack on Nombre de 
Dios and his continued presence on the coast, warning 
the Cartagenians to "prepare for him." From them 
ascertaining that he was now discovered to the chief 
places along the main, he made no further advance 



Drake's Great Exploits 239 

upon Cartagena, but sought instead a good hiding- 
place till the "bruit" of his being here "might cease"; 
intending later to make an alliance with the Cimaroons 
and raid the treasure route between Panama and 
Nombre de Dios. Meanwhile the "Swan" was scut- 
tled in order thoroughly to man the pinnaces, and the 
"Pasha" was utilized as a storehouse. During the 
next two months roving the coast with the pinnaces, 
many Spanish ships were seized and relieved of their 
cargoes, mostly provisions for "victualling" Nombre de 
Dios and Cartagena, and also the fleets to and from 
Spain. Such quantities of provisions of all kinds were 
thus obtained that the company built and stocked at 
different points, on islands and on the main, four 
storehouses; and there was sufficient as the season 
advanced to supply besides themselves, the Cimaroons, 
and also two French ships that fell in with them in 
"extreme want." Later their rendezvous was at the 
mouth of the Rio Diego, where they built a fort which 
they called "Fort Diego." In October, while at- 
tempting to take a frigate, John Drake was killed. 
Early in January the "calenture," or hot fever, broke 
out among the company, and several died, among them 
Drake's younger brother Joseph. 

On the third of February the land journey across the 
isthmus toward Panama was begun. At that time 
twenty-eight of the company had died, and several were 
yet ill. Since it was necessary to leave a few sound 
men with the sick ones, the number that made this 
march was only eighteen. The rest of the band were 



240 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Cimaroons, thirty in all. The highest point of the 
dividing ridge was reached on the eleventh of February 
when Drake, from a tree top, got his first sight of the 
Pacific and uttered his earnest prayer familiar in the 
histories, to be permitted once to sail an English ship 
upon it. The chronicler of the voyage thus well por- 
trays the animating scene: 

"The fourth day following we came to the height of 
the desired hill, a very high hill lying East and West, 
like a ridge between the two seas, about ten of the 
clock; where the chiefest of these Cimaroons took our 
Captain by the hand and prayed him to follow him if 
he was desirous to see at once the two seas, which he 
had so longed for. Here was that goodly and great 
high Tree in which they had cut and made divers steps 
to ascend up near unto the top, where they had also 
made a convenient bower wherein ten or twelve men 
might easily sit: and from thence we might without 
any difficulty plainly see the Atlantic Ocean whence 
now we came and the South Atlantic [Pacific Ocean] so 
much desired. South and north of this Tree they had 
felled certain trees that the prospect might be the 
clearer. . . . After our Captain had ascended to this 
bower with the chief Cimaroon, and having, as it 
pleased God, at this time by reason of the breeze a very 
fair day, had seen that sea of which he had heard such 
golden reports: he 'besought Almighty God of His 
Goodness, to give him life and leave to sail once in an 
English ship in that Sea!' And then calling up all 
the rest of our [seventeen English] men he acquainted 



Drake's Great Exploits 241 

John Oxnam [Oxenham] especially with this his peti- 
tion and purpose, if it would please God to grant him 
that happiness. Who understanding it presently pro- 
tested that 'unless our Captain did beat him from his 
company he would follow him by God's grace.' ' ; 

Drake's outlook is supposed to have been near the 
spot where Balboa, the discoverer, sixty years earlier, 
had "thanked God" that he was "the first Christian 
man to behold that sea"; and it is presumed that 
Drake had Balboa's thanksgiving in mind when he 
framed his ardent prayer. 

Two days later the band had come to the open region 
of savannas over which savage herds of black cattle 
roamed, whence glimpses of Panama (the old city north 
of the present one) were had. As they marched on, 
Drake saw the Spanish ships riding in the harbour; the 
Pacific beyond stretching placidly to the horizon. Now 
they were within a day's journey of the city. Toward 
sunset they reached the shelter of a grove through 
which the road ran, about a league from Panama. 
Here they rested while Drake despatched a spy, dis- 
guised as a Negro servant, into the city — a Cimaroon 
who had once served a master there and so was familiar 
with the place — to learn all about the movements of 
the "recuas:" the mule treasure and merchandise 
teams. The spy returned after dark with the joyous 
word that that very night a string of mule teams was 
to come out. The richest was to head the line accom- 
panying the Spanish treasurer of Lima, Peru, on the 
way with his family to Nombre de Dios, there to take 



242 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

an "advice ship" in waiting for Spain. This team 
comprised fourteen mules, of which eight were laden 
with gold and one with jewels. Two others imme- 
diately to follow were each of fifty mules, and were to 
carry provisions for the fleet at Nombre de Dios, with a 
small quantity of silver. They were to make the 
journey in the cool of the night, and to take the route 
by way of Venta Cruz (Cruces, on the left bank of the 
Chagres River). With this information Drake deter- 
mined to intercept the whole string and take oft the 
richest treasure. Accordingly the march was resumed 
away from Panama and toward Venta Cruz, some four 
leagues distant. 

They came to a halt in a secluded spot about two 
leagues south of the town. Near by one of the Cima- 
roons scented out a Spanish soldier, whom they literally 
caught napping. He was one of the guard hired to 
protect the Lima treasurer's train outward from Venta 
Cruz, and while waiting, knowing that he could get no 
rest till their safe arrival at Nombre de Dios, he had 
lain down in the grass and dropped asleep. He was 
terrorized at falling into the hands of the merciless 
Cimaroons, and being brought into the presence of 
Drake he plead for protection. He assured the cap- 
tain, on the honour of a soldier, that that night he might 
have, if he would, "more gold, besides jewels and pearls 
of great price" than all his men could carry, and for his 
own part he asked only as much of the plunder as would 
suffice for himself and wife to live on comfortably. 
Holding the soldier for what service he might render, 



Drake's Great Exploits 243 

Drake divided his band into two companies and am- 
bushed in long grass on either side of the road. He 
headed one campany, and John Oxenham, with the 
chief of the Cimaroons, the other. Drake's lay on one 
side of the road some fifty paces above Oxenham's on 
the opposite side. The foremost company were to 
seize the mules by their heads as the team came up, 
while the "hindmost" secured the rear: for the mules 
tied together were always driven one after the other. 
The Englishmen all drew their shirts over their apparel 
by Drake's order that they might be sure to know each 
other in the "pell mell of the night." 

The two sections had thus lain for above an hour 
when the notes of deep sounding bells, which the mule 
teams invariably bore, were heard in the distance in both 
directions, betokening the approach of trains from and to 
Venta Cruz. Then the nearer sound of a horse trotting 
over the road fell on the listening ears. As it was pass- 
ing the ambuscade one of the Englishmen, a sailor who 
had taken too much wine and become reckless, crept 
up close to the road and raised himself and gazed at the 
rider. He was a cavalier, well mounted, with a page 
running at his stirrup. A Cimaroon quickly pulled the 
sailor down and sat on him. But it was too late. The 
cavalier had caught sight of the white-shirted object, 
had recognized it as an Englishman of Drake's crew, 
and had put spurs to his horse and galloped off to warn 
the approaching treasurer's team of danger. Meeting 
it on the road the cavalier reported what he had seen, 
and his conjecture that Drake was in the neighbour- 



244 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

hood for plunder of treasure teams to recompense him- 
self for his failure at Nombre de Dios; and he persuaded 
the treasurer to turn his train out of the way, and let 
the others that were to follow pass first. Their loss, if 
"worse befel," would be of far less account, while they 
would serve to discover the party in ambush. And just 
this happened. As the others with the lesser treasure 
reached the ambush the captains blew their whistles 
for the attack, and both teams were speedily taken; 
but the spoil, besides the provisions, netted not more 
than two "horse-loads" of silver, and Drake's game 
was fully discovered. One of the chief carriers told 
him how their ambush had been exposed by the im- 
prudent sailor and how the cavalier had spread the 
warning, and counselled his party to "shift for them- 
selves betimes" unless they were able to combat the 
whole force of Panama before daybreak. 

Instead, however, of following this advice Drake took 
that of the chief of the Cimaroons, which was that he 
should boldly march on to the town and "make a way 
with his sword through the enemies." So, after enjoy- 
ing a full supper of meat and drink from the captured 
provisions, the march upon Venta Cruz was begun. 
The band mounted the mules and thus made the journey 
comfortably. When within a mile of the town and in 
a deep woods they dismounted, and leaving the mule- 
teers here, bidding them not to follow at their peril, 
made the remainder of the way on foot. Half a mile 
beyond a couple of Cimaroons of the advance guard 
discovered a Spanish force in ambush in a jungle at the 



Drake's Great Exploits 245 

side of the road. They were a body of soldiers with a 
number of fighting friars of a monastery at Venta Cruz. 
With this news Drake cautioned his men to move 
quietly, and pressed on. As they neared the ambus- 
cade the Spanish captain appeared in the roadway 
before them and called out "Hoo!" Drake replied 
with the sailor's response to a hail, "Hallo!" The 
Spaniard queried, "Que gente?" Drake answered, 
"Englishmen." The Spaniard demanded their sur- 
render, "in the name of the 'King, his master,"' with 
the promise, as a "gentleman soldier," of courteous 
treatment. Drake demanded passage "for the honour 
of the Queen, his mistress," and advancing toward the 
Spaniard fired his pistol in the air. This was taken as 
a signal by the men in ambush and they let off a volley. 
Drake was scratched, and several of his men were 
wounded, one fatally. He blew his whistle, and the 
English returned shot for shot, with a flight of arrows. 
Then the Cimaroons took a hand, and under the com- 
bined Indian and English warfare the Spaniards were 
routed. Close by the town gate they made another 
stand. Drake's men again scattered them, and with 
a rush entered the town. Guards were placed at the 
entrances at either end that the raiders might be secure 
while here. They stayed only an hour and a half. 
Drake ordered his men to take no heavy plunder, for 
they had a long march to make back to their ships, and 
they were yet in danger of attack. Still, many of them 
and the Cimaroons managed to make "some good 
pillage." 



246 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Having now practically completed the journey across 
the isthmus, and having been absent from the ships 
nearly a fortnight, a rapid return march was deemed 
imperative. The start was hastened by a little episode 
at the Panama gate. While the marauders were at 
breakfast just before daybreak they were startled by a 
lively fusillade at that end of the town. A company of 
cavaliers from Panama had galloped up, supposing that 
Drake had left, and had encountered his sentries at the 
gate. Several of the cavaliers were killed in the skir- 
mish and the rest scattered. Fearing that they were a 
scouting party and might be followed by a large force, 
Drake gave immediate orders to fall in for the departure. 
At dawn they were crossing the Chagres bridge and on 
their way at a quick gait. It was a hard and rushing 
march throughout to the coast where the ships lay, the 
men for days with empty stomachs and footsore. But 
it was cheerfully performed under Drake's buoyant 
leadership and his promise of golden spoil they were 
yet to win before they finally sailed back to England. 

After the return to their rendezvous Drake divided 
the company into two bands to rove in the pinnaces, 
one eastward the other westward, for plunder off the 
coast. The eastward rovers soon captured a fine 
Spanish frigate; and this ship, because of her strength 
and "good mould," Drake retained, and fitting her as 
a man-of-war added her to his fleet. He was in need 
of some new craft, for he had recently sunk one of his 
three pinnaces. Shortly after, in March, additional 
strength came in a French ship, a rover out of Havre, 



Drake's Great Exploits 247 

under one Captain Tetou with seventy men. The 
Frenchman had appeared when Drake's ships were 
again at the "Cativaas," needing water and provisions. 
Drake supplied his wants. Then the Frenchman, de- 
siring to join him in a venture, the two struck a bargain 
for a second raid on the isthmus treasure teams. The 
Frenchman with twenty of his men was to serve with 
Drake, "for halves": the plunder obtained to be 
equally divided. 

For this expedition Drake selected fifteen of his men 
and the Cimaroons with him before, so that the whole 
company, exclusive of the natives, numbered but 
thirty-five, besides the two captains. Leaving his 
"Pasha" and the French ship in a safe road, he manned 
the reformed Spanish frigate and his two pinnaces, and 
sailed toward "Rio Francesco." The frigate was left 
at Cabecas, with a crew of English and French, the 
pinnaces alone continuing to Rio Francesco. Here the 
band landed and took up their march, Drake charging 
the masters of the pinnaces to be back at this place 
without fail on the fourth day following, when they 
expected to return. They proceeded in covert through 
the woods toward the highway over which richly laden 
"recuas" were now coming daily from Panama to 
Nombre de Dios. When they had marched, as in the 
previous journey to Panama, to a "convenient point" 
between Rio Francesco and Nombre de Dios, they 
bivouacked for that night. As they rested "in great 
silence" they could hear the distant sounds of many 
carpenters working on the ships at Nombre de Dios, 



248 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

which was customarily done in the night time because 
of the great heat of the day; and their ears were 
charmed with the music of the bells of the trotting 
mule teams on the road. 

Early the next morning, April first, a jangle of bells 
nearing their cover told the approach of an unwonted 
number of recuas. Putting themselves in readiness 
they cautiously moved down toward the highway. 
Three great teams from Panama were coming along 
together. One consisted of fifty mules, the other two 
of seventy each, and each mule carried three hundred 
pounds' weight of silver: one hundred and ninety mules 
in all with a total of fifty-seven thousand pounds of the 
metal; while some were also laden with a small quan- 
tity of gold. Their guards comprised forty-five soldiers, 
fifteen to each recua. At the moment the teams were 
abreast them Drake's band sprang out, and took such 
hold of the heads of the foremost and hindmost mules 
that the rest stopped short and lay down. There fol- 
lowed a quick exchange of bullets and arrows, and then 
the flight of the guard "to seek more help abroad." In 
the skirmish the French captain was painfully wounded 
and one Cimaroon was killed. The raiders hurriedly 
relieved the mules of their burden, taking all of the 
treasure that they could well carry, including a few bars 
and quoits of gold, and burying a large part of the rest 
in various places — in burrows which great land crabs 
had made, beneath the trunks of fallen trees, and in the 
sand and gravel of a shallow river — to be taken away 
later as occasion might offer. Two hours were con- 



Drake's Great Exploits 249 

sumed in this business. Then the return march was 
started by the way they had come. They had scarcely 
re-entered the woods when they heard both horse and 
foot clattering along the road behind them. This 
force, however, did not pursue them, and it was sup- 
posed that they tarried to repossess the mules and the 
rifled packs. The march had not far progressed when 
the wounded French captain was obliged to drop out 
and seek rest in the woods, hoping soon to regain his 
strength. He was never again seen by his companions, 
though repeatedly sought, and it was afterward learned 
that he fell into the hands of the Spaniards. Later on 
the march another of the Frenchmen was missed. His 
fate, also ascertained subsequently, was not so tragic 
as his captain's, though hard and with sorry results to 
the band in that through it they lost much of the 
treasure which they had hidden. While rifling the 
teams he had drunk much wine, and overloading him- 
self with pillage, had started ahead of the rest and be- 
come lost in the woods. He, too, was captured by the 
Spaniards, and under torture he revealed the places of 
the buried plunder. Rio Francesco was reached after 
two days of marching and here no pinnaces were met. 
Instead they saw a fleet of seven Spanish pinnaces 
cruising off the coast. They "mightily suspected" 
that these Spaniards had taken or spoiled their boats. 
In this emergency Drake determined to reach his 
ships at all hazard. From trees that had been brought 
down a river by a recent storm he had his men con- 
struct a raft. For a sail a biscuit sack was utilized, 



250 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

and a young tree was stripped for an oar to serve in- 
stead of a rudder. Upon this rude craft he embarked 
with a few volunteers, and as he pushed off he com- 
forted the company left behind with the assurance that 
"if it pleased God he should put his foot in safety 
aboard his frigate he would, God willing, by one means 
or other get them all aboard despite of all the Span- 
iards in the Indies." He had thus sailed out into the sea 
some three leagues, under a parching sun and for about 
six hours all the while sitting up to the waist in water and 
at nearly every surge to the armpits, when two pinnaces 
were descried coming inward under a spanking breeze. 
As they neared they were seen to be his own pinnaces. 
At the sight the half-drowned raftsmen set up a shout. 
But they were evidently not seen by those on the pin- 
naces, for the boats shifted and ran into a cove beyond 
a point of land. Since they did not come out again 
Drake concluded that they were to anchor there for 
the night. Thereupon he piloted his shaky craft 
ashore, and leaping off, ran around the point and so 
came upon them, to the great astonishment of their 
occupants and his greater relief. Their masters ac- 
counted for their delay in reaching the rendezvous in 
telling how they had been beaten back by a heavy 
storm, and had been obliged to stand off to avoid the 
Spanish pinnaces. Drake's companions of the raft 
were first succoured; and then he himself, not stopping 
for rest, that evening rowed to Rio Francesco, where 
the remainder of the company and the treasure were 
taken off and brought to the pinnaces. At dawn next 



Drake's Great Exploits 251 

morning all set sail back again to the frigate, and thence 
directly to the ships at Fort Diego. Upon the arrival 
here Drake at once divided the treasure by weight into 
two even portions between the English and French. 

Shortly after twelve of Drake's men and sixteen of 
the Cimaroons were secretly sent again to the isthmus, 
for the buried treasure, and also, if possible, to recover 
the French captain. They learned no more than that 
Captain Tetou had been taken by the Spaniards, while 
the treasure had mostly disappeared, the earth having 
been dug and turned up for a mile about the hiding 
places. They found, however, thirteen bars of silver 
and a few quoits of gold, which they took off. 

Now it had become "high time to think of home- 
wards." The frigate was supplied from the "Pasha" 
with what necessaries were needed fully to supply her, 
and the "Pasha" was turned over to the few Spaniards 
whom they had all this time detained. Then Fort 
Diego was left, the French ship accompanying Drake's 
little fleet. For a few days they rode among the 
Cabecas. Afterward they parted with the French 
ship, and cruised about seeking another Spanish frigate 
which they might take to augment the fleet. Mean- 
while they passed "hard by" Cartagena, in the sight of 
the Spanish ships lying ofFthat port, defiantly displaying 
the flag of St. George in the main top of the frigate, 
"with silk streamers and ancients down to the water." 
Finally in July they were on the homeward voyage in 
two captured Spanish frigates and with their pinnaces. 
Their parting with the Cimaroons was most afFection- 



252 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

ate. Drake gave Pedro, their chief, a rich cimeter 
which he had received as a gift from Captain Tetou, 
and which the savage had secretly coveted, and Pedro 
gave Drake four wedges of gold as a "pledge of his 
friendship and thanks." Drake would decline the 
gold, but seeing that Pedro would be pained at a re- 
fusal, he accepted it and turned it into the common 
stock of his company. 

The return voyage was made with such a merry 
wind that the distance from Cape San Antonio in 
Florida to the Scilly Islands was accomplished in 
twenty-three days. Plymouth was reached on a Sun- 
day, August nine, during "sermon time," and the news 
of Drake's arrival "did so speedily pass over all the 
church and surpass their minds with desire and de- 
light to see him that very few or none remained with 
the preacher: all hastening to see the evidence of God's 
love and blessing toward our Gracious Queen and 
country, by the fruits of our Captain's labours and suc- 
cess. Soli Deo Gloria." So piously ends the chronicle. 

The profits of this buccaneering voyage, with the 
bullion brought home, were large to all who had part 
in it. Drake's share made him comparatively rich. 
As the historian Camden put it, he had "gotten a 
pretty store of money by playing the sailor and the 
pirate." Among the prizes that he took were a number 
of frigates engaged in the coasting trade, carrying gold, 
silver, and merchandise, and newly built through the 
energy and skill of Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the de- 
stroyer of the French colony in Florida. 



XVII 

ON THE PACIFIC COAST 

THREE years later Drake had begun his prepara- 
tions for his crowning exploit in the voyage 
round the globe. In the interim he had served 
voluntarily in Ireland (1573) under the Earl of Essex, 
furnishing at his own expense three frigates, with their 
equipment of munitions and men. This service brought 
him a strong friend and ultimate patron in Sir Chris- 
topher Hatton, then vice-chamberlain. And by Hatton 
he had been favourably presented to the queen, who 
received him most flatteringly, and is said to have 
encouraged him to follow up his attacks upon the 
colonies of Spain, her bitterest enemy, though yet 
nominally at peace with her. 

This voyage was planned with the utmost secrecy 
and its real object was carefully concealed. Even when 
the fleet had actually set sail the company on board 
were not aware of their true destination; and the mys- 
tery enveloping the enterprise most fascinated the bold 
and daring spirits enlisted in it. The statement had 
been given out that Constantinople was the goal of the 
voyage, but it was pretty generally felt that sooner or 

253 



254 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

later the Spanish American possessions would be 
reached. Spain, which at length had been apprised by 
her envoy of Drake's movements, shrewdly suspected 
that his aim, as before, was the Spanish Main; and it 
was the Spaniards' belief that he particularly contem- 
plated a fresh attack upon Nombre de Dios and the 
"Treasure of the World." To prey upon Spanish 
ships and loot Spanish possessions was indeed an upper- 
most purpose with him, but his scheme involved a far 
greater sweep of operations than the Spaniards im- 
agined. He meant, above all, to accomplish his ardent 
desire expressed on that tree top on the Isthmus of 
Panama, to sail an English ship into and to explore the 
Pacific, and incidentally to harass the Spanish colonies 
on the Pacific Coast, which from Patagonia to Cali- 
fornia was then under Spanish rule. The encompass- 
ing of the globe, however, was an afterthought growing 
out of the circumstances in which he found himself on 
the western North American coast. 

The fleet assembled for this voyage were five small 
ships, the largest of only one hundred tons, the smallest 
of fifteen, and the average of the whole lot fifty-five 
tons. They comprised: the "Pelican," the flag-ship, 
and the largest, with Drake in command; the "Eliz- 
abeth," eighty tons, Captain John Winter; the "Mari- 
gold," thirty tons, Captain John Thomas; the "Swan," 
a flyboat, fifty tons, Captain John Chester; the "Chris- 
topher," a pinnace, fifteen tons, Captain Thomas Moon. 
And in the holds of the larger ships were stored four 
pinnaces in parts, to be set up when needed. The ves- 



On the Pacific Coast 255 

sels were stocked and provisioned for a year or more. 
Some of them, at least Drake's ship, were luxuriously 
furnished. We are told of his rich tableware em- 
bellished with silver, presumably some of it prizes taken 
on his previous voyage; of silver pots and kettles in 
the cook-room; and of other sumptuous fittings. 
"Neither," says the historian, "had he omitted to make 
provision also for ornament and delight, carrying to 
this purpose with him expert musicians," a band of 
fiddlers to play for him at dinners; "and divers shews 
of all sorts of curious workmanship whereby the civility 
and magnificence of his native country might amongst 
all nations whithersoever he should come, be the most 
admired." The company comprised, according to the 
account which Hakluyt gives, one hundred and forty- 
six men, gentlemen and sailors; another puts the 
number at one hundred and sixty-three "stout and 
able seamen." 

They sailed out of Plymouth on the fifteenth of 
November, 1577. But this proved to be a false start. 
The wind falling contrary they were forced the next 
morning to put into Falmouth, where a furious tempest 
struck them and nearly wrecked the whole fleet. So 
they were obliged to return to Plymouth for repairs. 
The second start was made successfully, on the thir- 
teenth of December. Twelve days later they were ofF 
the coast of Barbary, and on the second day they called 
at Magador, where they tarried long enough to put 
together one of their pinnaces. While at this work 
they entertained some of the natives, who promised to 



256 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

bring them choice provisions in return for gifts of linen 
cloth, shoes, and a javelin. But the next day an un- 
lucky incident changed the aspect of affairs. A group 
supposed to have come with the provisions appeared 
at the water side and a shipboat was sent out to meet 
them. As the boat touched the shore a sailor sprang 
from it with outstretched hand to give a hearty sailor's 
welcome. He was instantly seized, flung across a 
horse's back and galloped away. It was afterward 
learned that this violent act was committed only to 
ascertain to whom the ships belonged. It was feared 
that they might be Portuguese ships, and these Moors 
were then at war with the Portuguese. The captured 
sailor was brought before a chief, and when this chief 
found out that the ships were English, the sailor was 
hurried back with apologies and loaded with presents. 
But the fleet was then gone. The sailor was returned 
to England at the first opportunity, none the worse for 
his experience. 

From Magador the fleet coasted the shore and put 
next into port at Cape Blanco. On the way down 
their first captures were made. These included three 
Spanish fisher boats, "canters," — or canteras, they were 
termed— and three Portuguese caravels, the latter 
bound to the Cape Verde Islands for salt. At Cape 
Blanco a ship was found riding at anchor with only 
two "simple mariners" aboard her. She was promptly 
taken and her cargo added to their spoil. In this har- 
bour the fleet remained four days, during which time 
Drake mustered his men on land and trained them 



On the Pacific Coast 257 

"in warlike manner to make them fit for all occasions." 
Before departing he had shifted such things as he de- 
sired from the captured canters and returned them to 
their owners save one, for which he gave in exchange 
one of his little barks, called the "Benedict," or the 
"Christopher," which name the canter afterward bore. 
Only one also of the captured Portuguese caravels was 
retained. Next the Cape Verde Islands were reached, 
and a landing made at Mayo (Maio), where luscious 
fruits were added to their stock of provisions. Drake 
sent out a company of his men to view this island, and 
they feasted on "very ripe and sweet grapes," and 
cocoa which was new to them. Next the fleet sailed 
by St. Jago [San Thiago], but far enough ofF to escape 
danger from the inhabitants whom they mistrusted: 
and properly, for the latter discharged three pieces at 
them as they passed by, the shot falling short of them. 
Off this island they took their richest prize thus far. 
She was one of two Portuguese ships to which they 
gave chase. They boarded her, when overhauled with 
a shipboat, without resistance. She yielded them with 
other valuable articles a good store of wine. Her 
pilot, one Nuno da Silva, was retained for service, 
which proved to be excellent, through a considerable 
part of the voyage, while the rest of her crew and her 
passengers, of whom there were several, were sent ofF 
in the newly set-up pinnace, graciously provided by 
her captors with a butt of wine out of their booty and 
some victuals. She was added to the fleet, with the 
name of "Mary" bestowed upon her, and put under 



258 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

the charge of Master Doughty, a volunteer and perhaps 
investor in the expedition, and a personal friend of 
Drake. Doughty was not a seafaring man, and he seems 
to have got into difficulty with his crew soon after taking 
command of the prize. Within a few days complaints 
of his conduct of her coming to Drake, he was called 
to the " Pelican," and the captain's own brother Thomas 
Drake (another younger brother) appointed to his 
place, the captain accompanying Thomas Drake on the 
prize. In the "Pelican" Doughty had no better luck, 
for complaints of abuse of his authority here soon 
arose. Accordingly he was deposed and sent to the 
"Swan" in no post of command. Farther along on the 
voyage he came to a tragic end, the central figure of a 
dramatic scene, as will appear later in this narrative. 
Next after San Thiago, Fuego (Fogo), the "burning 
island," then throwing out volcanic flames, and lastly 
"Brava," found in contrast a "most pleasant and 
sweet" isle, were passed. 

Then they "drew towards the line," where they 
were becalmed for three weeks, but yet" subject to divers 
great stormes, terrible lightnings, and much thunder." 
Along with this "miserie," however, they enjoyed an 
abundance of fish, as "Dolphins, Bonitos, Flying 
fishes," some of the latter falling into their ships. It 
was now known to the company that their next destina- 
tion was America, at Brazil. 

From the moment of leaving the Cape Verde Islands, 
they sailed fifty-four days without sight of land. On 
the fifth of April the Brazilian coast presented itself to 



On the Pacific Coast 259 

view. In the distance they saw fires on the coast. 
These they afterward learned were set by the natives 
when their ships were sighted, as a sacrifice to "the 
devils about which they use conjurations." The cus- 
tom of these natives, it seemed, whenever a strange 
ship approached the coast was to perform weird cere- 
monies to conjure the gathering of shoals and the 
outbreak of tempests by which the ship would be cast 
away. Two days afterward there actually came upon 
them a "mightie great storme both of lightning, rayne, 
and thunder," during which they lost the "Christopher," 
their captured canter. While sailing southward, how- 
ever, they found her a few days later, and the place 
where she was met Drake called the "Cape of Joy." 
Landing, they found no people, but the footprints 
they saw in the clay ground led them to believe that the 
inhabitants were "men of great statute," if not giants. 
On or about the twenty-seventh of April they were at 
the great river La Plata. They merely entered it, and 
finding no good harbour bore to sea again. In bearing 
out the "Swan" was missed. They next made harbour 
in a fair bay where were a number of islands, on one 
of which were seen many "sea wolves" (seals). In 
early June they were anchored in another harbour, 
farther south, which they called "Seal Bay" because 
of the abundance of seal here. They killed from two 
hundred to three hundred of them, the chronicler 
averred, within an hour's time. Again the "Swan' was 
found, and having become unseaworthy, she was 
stripped of her furnishings and burned. A few days 



260 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

later the "Christopher" was also discharged for the 
same reason. On the twentieth of June the fleet came 
to anchor at Port St. Julien, Patagonia, above the Strait 
of Magellan, giving entrance to the Pacific. 

St. Julien was the original winter port of Magelhaens, 
so named and established by him, and whence he sailed 
to his discovery of the mysterious strait. Drake simi- 
larly made it his port for recuperation and prepara- 
tion before attempting his passage of this strait to the 
goal of his ambition. Here two months were spent, 
while the ships were put in thorough condition, — three 
only, now, the "Mary," the Portuguese prize, having 
been broken up on her arrival because leaky, — and 
the company disciplined for the better conduct of 
the adventures before them. The stay was most dra- 
matically and painfully marked, however, by the trial, 
conviction, and beheading of Drake's friend, the un- 
fortunate Master Doughty, on the charge of inciting 
a mutiny in the fleet. The sight of a gibbet set up, 
as was supposed, seventy years before by Magel- 
haens for the execution of certain mutineers in his 
company, may have suggested this inexplicable pro- 
ceeding, which has been the subject of much specula- 
tion by historians and of condemnation by Drake's 
harsher critics. The affair is thus vividly reported, 
with careful particularity, by Hakluyt's chronicler: 

"The Generall began to inquire diligently of the 
actions of M. Thomas Doughtie and found them not to 
be such as he looked for, but tending rather to conten- 
tion or mutinie, or some other disorder, whereby (with- 



On the Pacific Coast 261 

out redresse) the successe of the voyage might greatly 
have been hazarded: whereupon the company was 
called together and made acquainted with the particu- 
lars of the cause, which were found partly by master 
Doughtie's owne confession, and partly by the evidence 
of the fact, to be true: which when our Generall saw, 
although his private affection of M. Doughtie (as hee 
then in the presence of us all sacredly protested) was 
great, yet the care he had of the state of the voyage, of 
the expectation of her Majestie, and of the honour of 
his countrey did more touch him (as indeede it ought) 
then [than] the private respect of one man: so that the 
cause being thoroughly heard, and all things done in 
good order as neere as might be to the course of our 
lawes in England, it was concluded that M. Doughtie 
should receive punishment according to the qualitie of 
the offence: and he seeing no remedie but patience for 
himselfe, desired before his death to receive the Com- 
munion, which he did at the hands of M. Fletcher our 
Minister, and our Generall himselfe accompanied him 
in that holy action: which being done, and the place of 
execution made ready, hee having embraced our 
Generall and taken his leave of all the companie, with 
prayers for the Queenes majestie and our realme, in 
quiet sort laid his head to the blocke, where he ended 
his life." 

Whether he were guilty or not, Doughty's fine courage 
and manly bearing throughout his ordeal calls only for 
admiration. 

The execution over, Drake made a speech to the as- 



262 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

sembled company, persuading them to "unitie, obedi- 
ence, love, and regard of" their voyage: and "for the 
better confirmation thereof" he "willed every man the 
next Sunday following to prepare himselfe to receive 
the Communion as Christian brethren and friends 
ought to doe." This, the chronicler concludes, was 
done " in very reverent sort, and so with good content- 
ment every man went about his businesse." 

St. Julien was left on the seventeenth of August, and 
on the twentieth the mouth of the Strait of Magellan 
was reached. At the entrance, Drake, as another 
chronicler recorded, caused the fleet, in homage to the 
queen of England, to "strike their topsails upon the 
bunt as a token of his willing and glad mind to shew 
his dutiful obedience to her highness, whom he ac- 
knowledged to have full interest and right" in his dis- 
coveries; and he formally changed the name of his own 
ship from the "Pelican" to the "Golden Hind," in 
remembrance of his "honourable friend and favourer," 
Sir Christopher Hatton, whose crest bore this design. 
Then the chaplain delivered a sermon and the cere- 
monies closed. 

The passage of the strait was successfully made in 
the remarkable time of sixteen days, and on the sixth 
of September the little fleet emerged in the sea of their 
desire on the "backside" of America. 

Instead, however, of the tranquil ocean that Magel- 
haens had named the Pacific, because of its serenity 
when he first saw it, they encountered a rough and 
turbulent water; and no sooner had they cleared the 



On the Pacific Coast 263 

strait than a great storm arose by which they were 
driven some two hundred leagues westward, and 
separated. The "Golden Hind" was struggling against 
the almost continuous tempest for full fifty-three days. 
From the west she was carried south as far as fifty-seven 
degrees, and Drake was enabled to see the union of the 
Atlantic and the Pacific, and by chance to discover 
Cape Horn. He sighted numerous islands, and gave 
the name of the "Elizabethides" to the whole group of 
Tierra del Fuego. While beating about west and south 
the fleet came together again, but only soon to be parted 
forever. In the middle of September a harbour was 
temporarily made in a bay which Drake called the 
" Bay of Severing Friends." Working northward again 
they stood in a bay near the strait. The next day the 
cable of the "Golden Hind" parted and she drove out 
to sea. Thus she lost sight of the "Elizabeth," and 
never saw her more. It was supposed that she had 
been put by the storm into the strait again, and that 
she would ultimately be met somewhere above. The 
first part of this supposition was correct. She had re- 
covered the strait. But instead of returning to the 
Pacific course Captain Winter made the passage back 
to the Atlantic, and so continued his voyage homeward, 
reaching England on the first of November. Captain 
Winter prepared an account of his companionship with 
Drake from the start, and of his experiences after 
parting with him, which Hakluyt reproduced. On the 
second of October the " Marigold," in trying to regain 
lost ground, fell away from the "Golden Hind" and 



264 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

afterward (though Drake was not aware of her fate) 
foundered with all on board. 

Now the "Golden Hind" was left alone with a single 
pinnace. Subsequently the pinnace with eight men 
in her separated from him and was seen no more. Her 
crew, as was some years after related by the single sur- 
vivor, had marvellous adventures, which included the 
return passage through the strait; a voyage to the River 
La Plata; fights with Indians in woods on the shore; 
escape of those left alive to a lone island, where the 
pinnace was dashed to pieces on the rocks; two months 
on this island by the survivors, now only two, who sub- 
sisted on crabs, eels, and fruits with no water to drink; 
and final escape to the mainland by means of a raft of 
plank, where one of the two died from over-indulgence 
in the sweet water of a rivulet. 

At length after her wanderings southward the 
"Golden Hind" with a favourable wind got fairly off 
on a northwestern course. Again coming to the height 
of the strait she coasted upward, Drake always hoping 
to meet or hear of his missing consorts. Through the 
inaccuracy of his charts he was carried more to the 
westward than he intended, and on the twenty-ninth 
of November fell in with an island called la Mocha. 
Here he came to anchor in the hope of obtaining water 
and fresh provisions, and of recuperating. Taking ten 
of his men he rowed ashore. The inhabitants were 
found to be Patagonians, who had been compelled by 
the "cruell and extreme dealings of the Spaniards" to 
flee from the mainland and fortify themselves on this 



On the Pacific Coast 265 

island. They thronged down to the water side with 
"shew of great courtesie," and offered potatoes, roots, 
and two fat sheep, Drake in return giving them trin- 
kets. A supply of water was also promised by them. 
But the next day when the same party rowed to the 
shore and two men were put on land with barrels to be 
filled, the people, mistaking these men for Spaniards, 
seized and slew them. Another account says that in 
attempting to rescue their comrades the party were as- 
sailed, and Drake was wounded in the face by arrows. 
The ship then at once weighed anchor and got off. 

Drawing toward the coast again, the next day anchor 
was dropped in a bay called St. Philip. Here an Indian 
came out in a canoe, and taking the "Golden Hind" 
to be Spanish, told of a great Spanish ship at a place 
called "S. logo" (Valparaiso), laden from Peru. For 
this exhilarating news Drake rewarded the canoeist 
with divers trifles, and under his pilotage straightway 
put off for Valparaiso to seize the prize if there. True 
enough, she was found in that harbour riding quietly 
at anchor, with only eight Spaniards and three Negroes 
on board. They also supposing the new comer to be 
Spanish, welcomed her with beat of drum and made 
readya"Bottija[a Spanish pot] of wine of Chili to drink" 
to her men. So soon, however, as the craft was come 
up to, one of Drake's impatient men began to lay about 
him, and striking one of the Spaniards cried "Abaxo 
Perro, that is in English Goe downe dogge!" This, 
in modern parlance, gave the "Golden Hind" away. 
But not a moment was lost in parley. "To be short," 



266 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

says the chronicler, "wee stowed them away under 
hatches all save one Spaniard, who suddenly and des- 
perately leapt over board into the sea, and swamme 
ashore to the towne ... to give them warning of our 
arrival." There were then in Valparaiso "not above 
nine households," and it was instantly abandoned. 
Drake proceeded to rifle the place. A lot of Chili wine 
was taken from a warehouse, and from a chapel a silver 
chalice, two cruets, and an altar cloth were carried off. 
All of the pious spoil was.generously given by Drake to 
his chaplain, Master Fletcher. This business done, all 
of the prisoners were freed with one exception, John 
Griego, a Greek, whom Drake held to serve him as 
pilot to the haven of Lima, and the "Golden Hind" 
set sail again with the Spanish prize in tow. She was 
rifled leisurely when at sea, and produced "good store 
of the wine of Chili, 25,000 pezoes of very pure and fine 
gold of Baldivia, amounting in value to 37,000 ducats 
of Spanish money or above." This was reckoned a 
pretty fine haul for the first one on the Pacific coast, but 
greater were to follow. 

The voyagers still kept in with the coast and next ar- 
rived at "a place called Cbquinobo" (perhaps Copiapo). 
Here Drake sent fourteen of his men to land for fresh 
water. They were espied and a body of horsemen and 
footmen dashed upon and killed one of them. Then 
the attacking force quickly disappeared. The English- 
men went ashore again and buried their comrade. 
Meanwhile the Spaniards reappeared with a flag of 
truce. But they were not trusted, and as soon as his 



On the Pacific Coast 267 

men had returned Drake again put to sea. He now 
had a new pinnace, having at this place set up another 
of the three brought out ready framed. The next 
place at which a landing was made was Tarapaca. 
On the shore a Spaniard was found lying asleep with 
thirteen bars of silver beside him. Drake's party took 
the silver and left the man. Not far from this place a 
boat's load going ashore for water met a Spaniard with 
an Indian boy driving eight "llamas," sheep of Peru, 
as "big as asses," each carrying on its back two leather 
bags, together containing one hundred pounds' weight 
of silver. They took the sheep with their burdens, 
and let the man and boy go. Still coasting along the 
buccaneering voyagers came next to the port of Arica. 
In this haven lay three barks well freighted with silver. 
They were instantly boarded and relieved of their 
cargoes. From one alone were taken fifty-seven 
wedges of silver, each of "the bigness of a brickbat," 
and of about twenty pounds' weight. They were un- 
protected, their crews having fled to the town at the 
approach of the Englishmen. Drake would have ran- 
sacked the town had his company been larger. As it 
was, the spoil of the barks so easily taken contented him. 
Now he was bound for Lima. Along the way he fell in 
with a bark which, being boarded and rifled, produced 
a good store of linen cloth. When as much of this 
stuff as was desired had been taken the bark was cast 
off. 

Callao, the port of Lima, was reached on the thir- 
teenth of February, and entered without resistance. 



268 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

A dozen or more ships were met in this haven, lying at 
anchor, all without their sails, these having been taken 
ashore, for the masters and merchants here felt per- 
fectly secure, never having been assaulted by enemies 
and fearing the approach of none such as Drake's 
company were. All were held up and rifled. In one 
were found fifteen hundred bars of silver; in another 
a chest of coined money, and stocks of silks and linen 
cloth. Drake questioned the crews as to any knowl- 
edge they might have of his lost consorts, for which he 
had kept up a continual lookout; but he could learn 
nothing from them. He learned something else, how- 
ever, which hastened his departure. This was that a 
very rich Spanish ship, laden with treasure, had sailed 
out of this port just before his arrival, bound for Pana- 
ma. She was the "glory of the South Sea," named the 
"Cacafuego," in English equivalent the "Spitfire." 
Drake was soon in full chase of her, and to prevent him- 
self being followed from Callao he cut all the cables of 
the twelve ships, letting them drive as they would, to 
sea or ashore. 

On this run he paused long enough to overhaul and 
loot a brigantine, taking out of her eighty pounds' 
weight of gold, a gold crucifix studded with emeralds, 
and some cordage which would come in handy on his 
ship. Drake promised his men that whichever should 
first sight the "Cacafuego" should be rewarded with 
the gold chain he wore. It fortuned that his brother 
John, "going up into the top," spied her at three o'clock 
one afternoon, and so won the chain. By six she was 




DRAKE OVERHAULING A SPANISH GALLEON. 



On the Pacific Coast 269 

reached and ordered to stand. Three pieces of ord- 
nance were shot off at her and struck down her mizzen. 
She was then boarded and easily possessed. Her 
treasure comprised jewels, precious stones, eighty 
pounds of gold, and twenty-six tons of silver. Among 
some plate were two gilded silver bowls which belonged 
to her pilot, Francisco by name. These particularly 
took Drake's fancy. So with suavity he observed to 
their owner, "Senor Pilot, you have here two silver 
cups, but I must have one of them." The "Senor 
Pilot" responded as affably, and, "because he could not 
otherwise chuse," handed over one to the general and 
bestowed the other upon the steward of the "Golden 
Hind." As he departed his boy, a lad with a clever 
wit, spoke up to Drake, "Captain, our ship shall be 
called no more the 'Cacafuego' but the 'Cacaplata,' 
and your ship shall be called the 'Cacafuego.'" "Which 
prettie speech of the Pilot's boy," the chronicler records, 
"ministered matter of laughter to us, both then and 
long after." 

The point where this prize was taken is given as 
some one hundred and fifty leagues below Panama. 
She was sailed out into the sea beyond the sight of land, 
and there rifled. When this was done Drake cast her 
off" and continued on his course up the coast, standing 
out to the westward to avoid Panama, where he was too 
well known. On an early April day, another fine ship 
was met with. She was taken without resistance. She 
was a merchant ship from Acapulco, in Mexico, rich 
laden with linen cloth, China silks, and porcelain ware. 



270 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Her owner was on board, a Spanish gentleman, Don 
Francisco de Carate. Drake treated him with great 
courtesy, and evidently won his admiration, for we read 
that he gave his captor a handsomely wrought falcon 
of gold with a great emerald set in the breast. Drake in 
return gave him a hanger and silver brazier. He re- 
leased the merchant after three days when, having 
finished his business with the captured ship, he suffered 
her to continue on her voyage. The pilot, however, 
was retained for his service. Afterward Carate gave 
a careful account of his experience with Drake in a 
letter to the viceroy of New Spain, and to this letter we 
are indebted for an engaging description of Drake's 
outfit, his characteristics, and his person. 

This intelligent and gracious witness pictures the 
general as "about thirty-five, of small size, and reddish 
beard," and characterises him as "one of the greatest 
sailors that exist both for his skill and for his power of 
commanding." His men were "all in the prime of 
life and as well trained for war as if they were old 
soldiers of Italy." He treated them "with affection, 
and they him with respect." Among them were "nine 
or ten gentlemen, younger sons of leading men in 
England," who formed his council. But he was not 
bound by their advice, though he might be guided by 
it. These young gentlemen all dined with him at his 
table. The service was of silver "richly gilt and en- 
graved with his arms." He dined and supped to the 
music of violins. He had "all possible luxuries, even 
to perfumes." He had two draughtsmen, who por- 



On the Pacific Coast 271 

trayed the coast "in its own colours." His ship carried 
thirty large guns, and a great quantity of ammunition, 
as well as artificers who could execute necessary repairs. 

Carate's retained pilot directed Drake up to and along 
the coastof North America, and aboutthe middle ofApril 
had brought him to the Mexican haven of "Guatulco" 
(Acapulco). He landed with a few of his men and went 
presently to the town, where, in the Town-House, a 
trial of three Negroes charged with conspiring to burn 
the place was proceeding. Judge, officers, and prison- 
ers were all seized and brought to the ship. The judge 
was required to write a letter commanding the towns- 
people to "avoid" that the ship might water here. 
This done, and the captives released, Drake's men ran- 
sacked the town. In one house they found a pot of 
the size of a bushel full of reals of plate. A flying 
Spanish gentleman was overtaken and a gold chain and 
jewels were filched from him. At this port Nuna da 
Silva, the Portuguese pilot retained all along from the 
time of his capture in the Cape Verde Islands, was 
discharged and put aboard a Spanish ship in the harbour. 
He subsequently made a written report to the viceroy 
of New Spain, comprising a circumstantial account of 
the voyage as far as he was compelled to make it. 
This account passed from that official to the viceroy 
of the Portugal-Indies, and some years afterward got 
to England, when Hakluyt published it. It follows the 
narrative of the chronicler of Drake's company in the 
Principal Navigations, and well supplements that. 

Now, at Acapulco, or at an island below this port 



272 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

which the chronicler calls "Canno," while his "Golden 
Hind" was undergoing a complete refitting, Drake was 
pondering his future course. His ship was rich in 
treasure, and his company were thinking of home. 
He now felt himself "both in respect of his private in- 
juries received from the Spaniards, as also of the con- 
tempts and indignities offered" to his country, "suffi- 
ciently satisfied and revenged";, and he believed that 
the queen would be contented with this service. Ac- 
cordingly he decided no longer to continue on the coast 
of New Spain. But whither should he turn ? It was 
unwise to go back as he had come. It was not well to 
make return by the Strait of Magellan for two reasons: 
"the one, lest the Spaniards should there waite and 
attend for him in great number and strength whose 
hands, hee being left but one ship, could not possibly 
escape." And it happened that a fleet was actually 
making ready for this purpose. The other was the 
dangerous situation of the Pacific mouth of the strait 
with "continuall stormes reigning and blustering, as 
he had found by experience, besides the shoalds and 
sands upon the coast." Finally, after consultation 
with his "council," he resolved to strike boldly out into 
the great sea and make for the Moluccas, the Spice 
Islands, of the East Indian Archipelago. He may 
have been influenced toward this decision through his 
capture while at Canno of a prize with two pilots and 
a Spanish governor on board bound for the Philippines; 
or by an earlier taking from the Spaniards, according 
to Silva's account, of some charts of seas hitherto un- 



On the Pacific Coast 273 

known to the English. At the same time it is believed 
that he had serious thoughts of trying for an "upper 
north" passage to the Atlantic from the "backside" of 
America, as Frobisher had sought the Northwest pas- 
sage from the east side three and more years before. 

The start on the western course, directly into the 
Pacific, was made about the middle of April. But 
almost immediately, in order to get a wind, it was 
necessary to steer somewhat northerly instead of due 
west. And thus northward the ship continued to sail, 
"six hundred leagues at the least," for some fifty days, 
or till the third of June, when she had come, as the 
chronicler recorded, "in 43 degrees towards the pole 
Arctike." The air had now grown so cold that the 
voyagers, coming from a torrid climate, were "griev- 
ously pinched" by it. On the fifth of June, because of 
the increasing cold, and of contrary winds, they thought 
it best to seek the shore. 

The coast they first sighted was "not mountainous 
but low plaine land." It was the lower part of the 
present great American state of Oregon. Hakluyt's 
chronicler made no mention of a stop here, but a later 
one (Drake's chaplain, Fletcher) told of their dropping 
anchor in a "bad bay" in which there was "no abid- 
ing" for any length of time. To go farther north, 
under all the circumstances, was out of the question, 
and if Drake really had thought seriously of seeking a 
northern strait between the oceans, that scheme was 
now abandoned. Again under sail, with the wind 
straight from the north, they were carried southward 



274 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

till they had come "within 38 degrees toward the line.'' 
And now "it pleased God" to send them "into a 
faire good Baye with a good winde to enter the same." 
This was on the coast of our present California. Here 
they came comfortably to anchor, and looking about 
them, saw little huts close by the waterside and strange 
natives pressing to the shore with welcoming ges- 
tures. 

So Drake discovered for the English the coast of 
Oregon and California. He was the first European to 
see the coast of Oregon and to anchor on its shores. 
Earlier discovery of the Californian coast was claimed 
for Portuguese ships in 1520 and 1542- 1543; and for 
the Spaniards in 1542. The Spaniards first applied 
the name of California to an indefinite territory up the 
coast above Mexico. Drake named the region which 
he visited, "New Albion," because of the "white bankes 
and cliffes" lying toward the sea, which he saw as he 
approached the place of his anchorage, and in remem- 
brance of the ancient name of Britain. The situation 
of his "faire good Baye" was a mooted question with 
historical authorities till near the close of the nine- 
teenth century. The weight of evidence appeared to 
point to San Francisco Bay till the exact identification 
of Point Reyes Head, a little north of San Francisco 
Bay, as Drake's landfall. This was made in full ac- 
cordance with the chroniclers' descriptions, by Prof. 
George Davidson, of the United States Coast and 
Geodetic Survey, who definitely fixed the disputed port 
under the eastern promontory of Point Reyes Head, 



On the Pacific Coast 275 

the haven now called Drake's Harbor. The "bad 
harbor" above, on the Oregon coast, Professor David- 
son identifies in an open roadstead off the mouth of the 
Chetko River, protected in part by Cape Ferrelo. 

Drake and his companions stayed in this port for 
thirty-six days and had wonderful intercourse with the 
natives. These people greatly marvelled at the things 
they brought and the presents they bestowed and 
thought their visitors to be gods. The Englishmen 
pitched their tents and built a temporary fort about 
them near the waterside at the foot of a hill, while 
from its summit groups of natives gazed, wide-eyed, 
down upon their work. Then followed a succession of 
stately ceremonies. 

First, the people, assembled on the hill-top, put forth 
one of their number as spokesman, who "wearied him- 
self" with a long oration directed at the Englishmen 
mustered below. This over, the men, leaving their 
bows and arrows behind them, came down the hill 
bearing presents to the Englishmen, feathers and bags 
of "tobac," assumed to have been tobacco. Mean- 
while the women, remaining on the hill-top, "tormented 
themselves lamentably, tearing their flesh from their 
cheekes," which was understood to be a sacrifice, a 
pagan performance that distressed the Englishmen, 
who expressed their d sapproval of it by gestures and 
endeavoring to offset it with a service of prayer and 
scripture reading. Then the presents were delivered 
and this ceremony ended. Next the native king, ac- 
companied by his chief men and a throng of his people, 



276 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

formally welcomed the newcomers with a great demon- 
stration. Of this spectacle the chronicler furnished 
a minute description, warranted by the novelty of it 
and the surprising climax: 

"The people that inhabited round about came downe 
and amongst them the King himselfe, a man of a goodly 
stature & comely personage, with many other tall 
and warlike men: before whose comming were sent 
two Ambassadors to our Generall to signifie that their 
King was comming, in doing of which message their 
speach was continued about halfe an houre. This 
ended, they by signes requested our Generall to send 
some thing by their hand to their King as a token that 
his comming might be in peace: wherein our Generall 
having satisfied them, they returned with glad tidings 
to their King, who marched to us with a princely 
majestie, the people crying continually after their 
manner, and as they drew neere unto us, so did they 
strive to behave themselves in their actions with come- 
linesse. In the forefront was a man of a goodly per- 
sonage who bare a scepter or mace before the King, 
whereupon hanged two crownes, a lesse and a bigger, 
with three chaines of a marveilous length: the crownes 
were made of knit worke wrought artificially with 
fethers of divers colours; the chaines were made of a 
bonie substance, and few be the persons among them 
that are admitted to weare them: and of that number 
also the persons are stinted, as some ten, some twelve 
&c. Next unto him which bare the scepter, was the 
King himselfe with his Guard about his person, clad 



On the Pacific Coast 277 

with Conie skins, & other skins; after them followed 
the naked common sort of people, every one having his 
face painted, some with white, some with blacke, and 
other colours, & having in their hands one thing or 
another for a present, not so much as their children, 
but they also brought their presents. 

"In the meane time our Generall gathered his men 
together, and marched within his fenced place, making 
against their approaching a very warre-like shew. 
They being trooped together in their order, and a 
generall salutation being made, there was presently 
a generall silence. Then he that bare the scepter 
before the King being informed by another, whom they 
assigned to that office, with a manly and loftie voyce 
proclaymed that which the other spake to him in secrete, 
continuing halfe an houre: which ended and a generall 
Amen as it were given, the King with the whole number 
of men and women (the children excepted) came downe 
without any weapon, who descending to the foote of the 
hill set themselves in order. In comming towards our 
bulwarks and tents, the scepter-bearer began a song, 
observing his measures in a daunce, and that with a 
stately countenance, whom the King with his Guarde, 
and every degree of persons following, did in like man- 
ner sing and daunce, saving onely the women, who 
daunced and kept silence. 

"The Generall permitted them to enter within our 
bulwarke, where they continued their song and daunce 
a reasonable time. When they had satisfied themselves 
they made signes to our Generall to sit downe, to whom 



278 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

the King and divers others made several orations, or 
rather supplications, that hee would take their province 
and kingdome into his own hand and become their 
King, making signes that they would resigne unto him 
their right and title of the whole land and become his 
subjects. In which to perswade us the better the King 
and the rest with one consent and with great reverence, 
singing a song, did set the crowne upon his head, in- 
riched his necke with all their chains and offered unto 
him many other things, honouring him by the name 
of Hioh, adding thereunto as it seemed, a signe of 
triumph: which thing our Generall thought not meete 
to reject, because he knew not what honour and profit 
it might be to our Countrey. Wherefore in the name, 
and to the use of her Majestie he took the scepter, 
crowne, and dignitie of the said Countrey into his 
hands, wishing that the riches & treasure thereof might 
so conveniently be transported to the inriching of her 
kingdom at home, as it aboundeth in ye same." 

After these ceremonies the general and his company 
marched up into the country and visited the villages 
of the natives. They found the land fair and abound- 
ing particularly in deer, of which great herds, a thousand 
in a herd, they reckoned, were seen. The houses in 
the villages were circular in form. They were "digged 
about with earth," and had "from the uttermost brim- 
mes of the circle clefts of wood set upon their joyning 
close together at the top like a spire steeple." The 
beds herein were of rushes strewn upon the ground. 
The men were almost entirely without apparel, while 



On the Pacific Coast 



279 



the women wore a single garment woven of bulrushes 
with a deer-skin on their shoulders. 

Of the resources of the region scant report was given 
beyond this significant statement, which was left to be 
verified for nearly three centuries: "There is no part 
of earth heere to bee taken up wherein there is not some 
probable shew of gold or silver." 

Just before his departure Drake nailed upon a 
"faire great poste" a plate "whereupon were engraven 
her Majesties name, the day, and yeere of our arrivall 
there, with the free giving up of the province and 
people into her Majesties hands, together with her 
highnesses picture and armes, in a peace of sixe pence 
of current English money under [beneath] the plate, 
whereunder was also written the name of our Generall." 
And to this record the chronicler adds, to clinch the 
English claim, "It seemeth that the Spaniards hitherto 
had never bene in this part of the Countrey, neither did 
ever discover the land by many degrees to the South- 
wards of this place." 

While in the "New Albion" port the "Golden Hind" 
was careened and refitted, so that she finally sailed on 
the next stage of her voyage in excellent condition. 
The port was left on the twenty-third of July, the kind 
natives, who parted with the Englishmen most reluc- 
tantly, keeping up fires on the hills as the ship ploughed 
her way, now westward, perforce with a northwest 
wind, into the trackless sea. 

The next day the Farallones, directly west of San 
Francisco Bay, were passed, Drake calling them the 



280 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

"Islands of St. James." After these islands were lost 
to view they sailed without sight of land for more 
than two months, or sixty-eight days, when they fell 
in with "certain islands 8 degrees Northward of the 
line," supposed to have been the Pellew Islands. 
Only a brief stay was made here, and the natives were 
found so untrustworthy that Drake disgustedly named 
the group the "Islands of Thieves." In October they 
were among the Philippines, and watered off Mindanao. 
Thence pursuing their way southward, in November 
they had come to the "Spice Islands." 

At Tenate, where they first anchored, they spent three 
weeks, the while receiving flattering attentions from the 
native king, with great show of barbaric splendour. 
Drake began the exchange of courtesies the morning 
after his arrival by sending a messenger to the king 
bearing a velvet cloak as a present to him and also as 
a token that the Englishmen were here in peace, re- 
quiring nothing but traffic. The king responded 
graciously, and sending Drake a signet, he offered 
himself and his kingdom to the service of the queen of 
England. Afterward he made a formal call at the ship. 
Preceding him there came four great canoes bringing 
out his men of state and their retinues. The dignitaries 
were all attired in "white lawne of cloth of Calicut," 
and sat in the order of their rank beneath an awning 
of thin perfumed mats on a frame of reeds. With 
those in each canoe were "divers young and comely 
men," also dressed in white. Guarding them were 
lines of soldiers, standing, on either side. Without 



On the Pacific Coast 281 

the soldiers were the rowers, sitting in galleries, four 
score in each gallery, of which there were three rising 
one above the other and extending out from the canoe's 
sides three or four yards. All of the canoes were armed, 
and most of their passengers carried their weapons, the 
dignitaries or their young attendants each with sword, 
target, and dagger, the soldiers bearing lances, calivers, 
darts, and bows and arrows. Reaching the ship the 
canoes were rowed around her in order one after another, 
while the dignitaries "did their homage with great 
solemnity." The king followed, accompanied by six 
"grave and ancient persons," all of whom "did their 
obeisance with marveilous humilitie." The king seemed 
most delighted with the music of the ship's band. 

The next day a deputation composed of several of 
the gentlemen in the ship's company, the vice-king 
being retained aboard as hostage, received a great 
entertainment ashore. They were conducted with 
great honour to the "castle," where, the chronicler 
avers, were at least a thousand persons assembled. 
Sixty "grave personages," said to be the king's council, 
sat in seats of honour. Presently the king entered, 
walking beneath a rich canopy and guarded by twelve 
"launces." He was sumptuously attired in a garment 
of cloth of gold depending from his waist to the ground. 
His legs were bare, but on his feet were shoes of cordovan 
skin. His head was topped with finely wreathed hooped 
rings of gold. About his neck was a gold chain in 
great links. On his fingers were six jewels. He took 
his chair of state, arid a page standing at his right began 



282 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

"breathing and gathering the ayre" with a gorgeous 
fan, "in length two foote, and in breadth one foote, 
set with 8 saphyres, richly imbroidered, and knit to a 
stafFe 3 foote in length." At the conclusion of their 
entertainment Drake's men were escorted back to their 
ship by one of the king's council. 

From Ternate, with an abundance of cloves added to 
their rich cargo, they sailed to the southward of Celebes, 
and anchored off a small uninhabited island, where they 
remained twenty-six days refreshing themselves, and 
meanwhile graving the ship (cleaning the ship's bottom). 
Again underway, after sighting Celebes, by contrary 
winds they became entangled among islands and barely 
escaped wreck on a rock. They escaped only by light- 
ing the ship of three tons of their precious cloves and 
several pieces of ordnance, and the sudden coming of 
a "happy gale" which blew them off. In February they 
fell in with the fruitful island of "Barateve" (Batjan), 
where they rested three days enjoying the hospitality 
of the friendly people and repairing the ship. Thence 
their course was set for Java major. Here they arrived 
in March, and also met much courtesy from the natives, 
with "honourable entertainment" by the rajahs then 
governing the island. From Java they steered for the 
Cape of Good Hope. This they passed in June. 
They found it not at all the dangerous cape that the 
Portuguese had reported, but a "most stately thing," 
and the finest cape they had seen in all their travels. 
A month later they were at Sierra Leone. Here they 
stopped long enough to take in fresh provisions. Then 



On the Pacific Coast 283 

setting sail for the last time, they finally arrived at their 
home port in England on the third of November, 1580, 
after an absence of three years. 

Their arrival with their astonishing freight of riches 
in gold, silver, pearls, precious stones, silks, spices, 
and with their amazing tales of adventure, was a 
momentous event. All England was stirred by the 
story of the marvellous voyage. At first men of affairs 
were chary and avoided a recognition of Drake's 
achievements, knowing that they must lead to complica- 
tions with Spain. The queen withheld her approba- 
tion while an official inquiry into his conduct was 
proceeding. In the meantime some critics in high 
places raised a clamour against him, and termed him the 
"Master Thief of the Unknown World." But, with 
the increasing tension in the relations between the two 
nations, sentiment changed. On the fourth of April, 
1 58 1, five months after his return, the queen visited 
him in state on the "Golden Hind," now at Deptford, 
and at the close of a banquet on the deck of the famous 
ship, she formally knighted him for his services, and 
conferred upon him a coat of arms and a crest. At the 
same time she gave directions for the preservation of 
the "Golden Hind," as a monument to his own and 
England's glory. So this ship remained for more than 
a century. Then, having fallen into decay, she was 
broken up, and from remnants of her frame a chair was 
made which found a permanent place in the Bodleian 
Library at Oxford. 

Drake made no more voyages of discovery. His 



284 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

subsequent exploits on the sea were all for the harass- 
ment of Spain. In 1585 he was admiral, with Martin 
Frobisher vice-admiral, as we have seen, of a fleet sent 
to intercept the Spanish galleons from the West Indies, 
and to "revenge the wrongs" offered England by 
Spain. In 1587 he sailed a fleet to Lisbon and there 
burned many ships, which he termed "singeing the 
King of Spain's beard." In 1588 he was the resource- 
ful vice-admiral of the great fleet against the Spanish 
Armada. In 1589 he commanded the fleet sent to 
restore Dom Antonio to the throne of Portugal. Lastly, 
he was with his old leader, Sir John Hawkins, again in 
the West Indies and on the Spanish Main. 

And here, in 1595, he died, on board his own ship, 
near Nombre de Dios, the object of his first assault 
in his first voyage of reprisal, a quarter of a century 
before. 



XVIII 

GILBERT'S VOYAGES 

1ESS than a fortnight after the departure of Martin 
i Frobisher on his third and last Northwestern 
voyage, in May, 1578, Humphrey Gilbert had 
obtained the letters-patent which he had long coveted 
from Queen Elizabeth for the "inhabiting and planting 
of our people in America"; and before the summer 
was far advanced he had organized an expedition of 
his own with these objects. 

This pioneer charter providing definitely for English 
colonization in America bore date of eleventh of June 
1578, and was limited to six years. The full text is given 
in the Principal Navigations. It conferred upon Sir 
Humphrey, his heirs and assigns, large powers, and pro- 
vided the machinery necessary for the government of a 
colony. It gave him and them free liberty and license 
to "discover, finde, search out, and view such remote, 
heathen and barbarous countreys and territories not 
actually possessed by any Christian prince or people," 
and to have, hold, occupy, and enjoy such regions with 
all their "commodities, jurisdictions, and royalties 

285 



286 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

both by sea and land," the single condition being that 
one-fifth part of the gold and silver ore that might be 
obtained be paid over to the queen. They were em- 
powered to "encounter, expulse, repell, and resist as 
well by Sea as by land" all persons attempting to in- 
habit without their special license in or within two 
hundred leagues of the places occupied by them. They 
were to have a monopoly of the commerce of such 
places, no vessels being permitted to enter their harbours 
for traffic except by their license. The rights of Eng- 
lishmen were promised to all people who might become 
members of the colony. 

Associated with Sir Humphrey in his enterprise under 
this charter were "many gentlemen of good estimation," 
while his right hand in all the work of preparation was 
his notable half-brother, Walter Raleigh. By autumn 
was assured the assemblage of a "puissant fleet able to 
encounter a king's power by sea." There were eleven 
sail in all in readiness, and a volunteer company of 
four hundred men, gentlemen, men-at-arms, and 
sailors, collected for the venture. In the mean time, 
however, the enterprise had been diverted from its 
apparent original object to a secret assault upon the 
West Indies, with possibly an after attempt at coloniza- 
tion on the southern coast of North America, while the 
preparations had been hampered by divided councils 
and dissensions among the captains. The breaches 
in the organization had the more serious effect, for when 
the time for sailing had come the greater number of the 
intended voyagers had dispersed, and Sir Humphrey 



Gilbert's Voyages 287 

was left with only a few assured friends. Nevertheless, 
with his fleet reduced to seven ships and his company 
to one hundred and fifty men, he set off from the Devon 
coast, as agreed, on the twenty-first of September. 
But the ships had barely got to sea when they were 
driven back to port by hard weather. A second start 
was made on the eighteenth of November. Of the 
course and of the details of this voyage nothing satis- 
factory is recorded; and the fragmentary accounts are 
contradictory. All that appears to be clearly known is 
that, after an absence of several months, the fleet in 
part returned to Plymouth, Gilbert arriving first, and 
Raleigh with his ship last, in May, 1579; and that 
there had been encounters at sea with the Spaniards 
in which one of the chief vessels was lost, and also one 
of the leaders in the expedition, Miles Morgan, " a 
valiant gentleman." 

In this venture Sir Humphrey had so heavily invested 
that his personal estate was impaired. But its failure 
so little disheartened him that he at once began plan- 
ning another one, this one directly for colonization. 
Meanwhile, in the summer immediately following his 
return he served with his ships on the Irish coast. 
After a year or two, still being without means to perfect 
his scheme, he gave assignments from his patent to 
sundry persons desiring the privilege of his grant to 
plant in the north parts of America " about the river of 
Canada," his hope being that their success would further 
his scheme which was then to colonize southward. 
Time, however, went on without anything being done 



288 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

by his assigns, and the six years' limit of his charter 
was nearing. Consequently if the patent were to be 
kept in force action was imperative. 

At this juncture (in 1583) he was successful in effect- 
ing a new organization. Raleigh was again in close 
hand with him; but the chief adventurer was Sir 
George Peckham, who had been an associate with Sir 
Richard Grenville and others in support of a second 
petition of Gilbert's to the queen in 1574, for a charter 
to discover "riche and unknowen landes." A good 
deal of time was spent by the projectors in debating the 
best course to adopt, — whether to begin the intended 
discovery of a fit place to colonize from the south north- 
ward or from the north southward. Finally it was de- 
cided that the voyagers should take the north course and 
follow as directly as they might the "trade way unto 
Newfoundland," whence, after their "refreshing and 
reparation of wants," they should proceed southward, 
"not omitting any river or bay which in all that large 
tract of land" appeared to their view worthy of search. 

This programme arranged, five ships were assembled 
and made ready for the voyage. These were the 
"Delight, alias the George," of one hundred and twenty 
tons, the " Bark Raleigh," two hundred tons, the 
"Golden Hind," forty tons, the "Swallow," forty tons, 
and the "Squirrel," ten tons. The "Delight" was 
designated "admiral" of the fleet to carry Sir Hum- 
phrey as general. The " Raleigh," the largest vessel in 
the squadron, was to be "vice-admiral," and the 
"Golden Hind" "rear admiral." The "Raleigh" had 



Gilbert's Voyages 289 

been built and manned at the expense of Raleigh, but 
he did not personally join the expedition, the queen 
refusing to give her permission for him to go out with 
it. The company brought together numbered in all 
two hundred and sixty men of all sorts and condition. 
Among them were shipwrights, masons, carpenters, 
smiths; a "mineral man" and refiner; gentlemen, ad- 
venturers, and sea-rovers. For entertainment of the 
company and for allurement of the savages who might 
be met, "musick in good variety," and toys, as "Morris 
dancers, Hobby horses, and Mayfair conceits," were 
provided. Also a stock of petty haberdashery wares 
was put in to barter with "those simple people." 

The account of this voyage which Hakluyt gives was 
the official one, prepared by Edward Hayes, the captain, 
and also owner of the "Golden Hind," which alone of 
the fleet completed it and returned to Plymouth with 
its tragic story. His narrative appears in the Principal 
Navigations under this much-embracing title: "A Re- 
port of the Voyage and successe thereof, attempted in 
the yeere of our Lord 1583 by Sir Humfrey Gilbert 
knight, with other gentlemen assisting him in that 
action, intended to discover and to plant Christian in- 
habitants in place convenient, upon those large and 
ample countreys extended Northward from the Cape 
of Florida, lying under very temperate Climes esteemed 
fertile and rich in Minerals, yet not in actual possession 
of any Christian prince, written by M. Edward Haie 
gentleman, and principall actour in the same voyage, 
who alone continued unto the end, and by Gods speciall 



290 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

assistance returned safe and sound." To Captain 
Hayes we are also indebted for some particulars of Sir 
Humphrey's efforts that culminated in his first abortive 
voyage of 1578-1579, which are detailed by way of 
preface to his story of this voyage. 

The start was auspiciously made from Plymouth 
harbour on the eleventh of June, 1583, Gilbert wearing 
on his breast the queen's gift of an emblematical jewel, 
— a pearl-tipped golden anchor guarded by a woman, — 
sent him on the eve of the departure as a token of her 
good wishes for his venture. But when only the third 
night out, with a prosperous wind, consternation was 
occasioned by the desertion of the " Raleigh." Earlier 
in the evening she had signified that her captain and 
many of her men had fallen sick; then later, with no 
further communication, she put about on a homeward 
course. Although after his return from the voyage 
Captain Hayes heard it "credibly reported" that her 
men were really affected with a contagious sickness, and 
that she arrived back at Plymouth greatly distressed, he 
could not accept this as sufficiently accounting for her 
act. The real reason he "could never understand." 
Therefore he left it "to God." 

With this desertion of the "Raleigh" Captain Hayes's 
"Golden Hind" succeeded to the place of vice-admiral, 
and accordingly her flag was shifted from the mizzen 
to the foretop. Thus the remaining ships sailed till 
the twenty-sixth of July when the "Swallow" and the 
"Squirrel" were lost in a fog. The "Delight" and the 
"Golden Hind," now alone, four days later sighted 



Gilbert's Voyages 291 

the Newfoundland coast, — seven weeks from the time 
that the fleet had left the coast of England. 

The two ships continued along the east coast to 
Conception Bay, where the "Swallow" was met again. 
After her disappearance in the fog she had engaged in 
piratical performances on the sea. An especially mean 
act had been the despoiling of a fishing bark and leaving 
her sailless to make her homeward voyage, some seven 
hundred leagues away. The "Swallow's" crew were 
hilarious over their exploits, and many of them appeared 
in motley garb made up of the clothing filched from the 
despoiled fishermen. Her captain, an "honest and 
religious man," was held blameless in this business. 
He had had put upon him men "not to his humour or 
desert": a crew of pirates, whom he evidently could not 
control. Later, the same day, the now three ships had 
come before the harbour of St. John's, and here the 
"Squirrel" was found. She was lying at anchor off 
the harbour mouth, entrance having been forbidden 
her by the "English merchants" of St. John's, who, as 
the elected "admirals," represented the Newfoundland 
fishing fleets of different nationalities, of which thirty- 
six sail happened then to be inside this harbour. 

Sir Humphrey prepared to enter by force if necessary, 
"any resistance to the contrary notwithstanding." But 
when he had shown his commission to the "admirals," 
and explained that he was here to take possession of the 
lands in behalf of the crown of England and "the ad- 
vancement of the Christian religion in those Paganish 
regions," and that all he required was their "lawful 



292 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

aid" in refreshing and provisioning his fleet, he was 
cordially received, and all the great guns of the fishermen 
belched forth salutes of welcome. 

A landing was made on the next morning, Sunday, the 
fourth of August. The general and his company were 
that day courteously escorted about the place by the 
English merchants. They were shown their hosts' ac- 
customed walks in a part called by them "The Garden." 
This was found to be a product of "Nature it selfe 
without art," comprising a pleasant tangle of wild 
roses, "odoriferous and to the sense very comfortable," 
and "raspis berries" in great plenty. The next day the 
ceremony of taking possession was performed, which 
the narrator thus describes in faithful detail: 

" Monday following, the Generall had his tent set up, 
who being accompanied with his own followers sum- 
moned the marchants and masters [of the fishing barks 
in the harbours] both English and strangers to be present 
at his taking possession of those Countries. Before 
whom openly was read & interpreted unto the strangers 
his Commission: by vertue whereof he tooke possession 
in the same harbour of S. John, and 200 leagues every 
way, invested the Queens Majestie with the title and 
dignitie thereof, had delivered unto him (after the cus- 
tome of England) a rod & a turffe of the same soile, 
entring possession also for him, his heires, and assigns 
for ever: And signified unto al men, that from that 
time forward, they should take the same land as a terri- 
torie appertaineing to the Queene of England, and 
himselfe authorised under her Majestie to possesse and 



Gilbert's Voyages 293 

enjoy it. And to ordaine lawes for the government 
thereof, agreeable (so neere as conveniently might be) 
unto the lawes of England: under which all people 
comming thither hereafter, either to inhabit, or by way 
of traffique, should be subjected and governed. 

"And especially at the same time for a beginning, he 
proposed & delivered three lawes to be in force imme- 
diately. That is to say: the first for Religion, which in 
publique exercise should be according to the Church of 
England. The 2. for maintenance of her Majesties 
right and possession of those territories, against which 
if any thing were attempted prejudiciall the parties 
offending should be adjudged and executed as in case 
of high treason, according to the lawes of England. 
The 3. if any person should utter words sounding to the 
dishonour of her Majestie, he should loose his eares, and 
have his ship and goods confiscate. 

"These contents published, obedience was promised 
by generall voyce and consent of the multitude aswell 
of Englishmen as strangers, praying for continuance of 
this possession and government begun. After this, the 
assembly was dismissed. And afterward were erected 
not farre from that place the Armes of England ingraven 
in lead, and infixed upon a pillar of wood." 

The next step was to grant in fee farms, -or parcels of 
land, lying by the waterside on this and neighbouring 
harbours, the grantees covenanting to pay a certain rent 
and service to Sir Humphrey, his heirs and assigns, and 
yearly to maintain possession by themselves or their 
assigns. Thus the grantees were assured of grounds 



294 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

convenient to dress and dry their fish, which had not 
previously been enjoyed, the first comers into these 
harbours in the fishing season taking possession of the 
available places. 

While this business was going forward by the chiefs 
the men of the company were divided into groups and 
each group assigned to a particular work. One group 
were set at repairing and trimming the ships; another 
at the collection of supplies and provisions. Others 
were delegated to search the commodities and "singu- 
larities" of the region and report to the general all they 
could learn either from their own observations or from 
those who had longest frequented this coast. Another 
group were to obtain the elevation of the pole, and to 
draw plats of the country "exactly graded." 

Meanwhile Sir Humphrey and his principal men were 
being right royally entertained by the fishing-ship 
owners and masters, who, with their crews, constituted 
the European population of the place during the fishing 
season. It was the rule to choose the "admirals," 
practically the governors of the community, anew each 
week, or rather they succeeded in orderly course, and 
to solemnize the change with a weekly "admirals' 
feast." The general and the captains and masters of 
his fleet were not only guests at this feast, but they were 
continually invited to other banquets. Even with the 
"abundance at home" in England, such entertainment 
as they received would have been delightful, says the 
chronicler: but here, in this "desolate corner of the 
world, where at other times of the yeare wild beasts and 



Gilbert's Voyages 295 

birds have only the fruition of all those countries," it 
was more acceptable to them and of greater "contenta- 
tion." Also the supplies furnished them for their 
ships, for which all the fishermen in the harbours, 
"strangers" as well as English, were taxed, were un- 
expectedly rich and abundant. The Portuguese fisher- 
men were the most liberal contributors. Wines were 
received in generous quantity; marmalades, "most fine 
ruske or biskit, sweet oyles, and sundry delicacies." 
There were, too, brought them daily quantities of 
salmon, trout, lobsters, and other fish. 

The group assigned to inquire into the "singularities" 
of the region were directed among other things to look 
for metals, and the mineral man and refiner was par- 
ticularly charged by Sir Humphrey to be diligent in the 
search for ore. This expert was a "Saxon borne, hon- 
est and religious, named Daniel," upon whose conserva- 
tive judgment Sir Humphrey relied. Daniel first came 
upon "some sort of Ore seeming rather to be yron than 
other metall." The next find was more important 
and was displayed by him to Sir Humphrey with "no 
small shew of contentment." Indeed, so sure was he 
that his specimens were evidences of silver in abundance 
that he was ready to pledge his life, which was " as deere 
unto him as the Crowne of England unto her Majesty," 
if it should not fall out accordingly. If silver were the 
thing that would satisfy the general and his associates 
in England, Daniel advised him to seek no farther. 
The rich thing was here. Sir Humphrey would have 
acted upon his advice if his "private humour" only was 



296 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

to be satisfied. But the promise to his friends, and the 
"necessitie to bring the South countreys within compasse 
of the patent nearly expired, as they had already done 
in these North parts," made it imperative for him to 
continue on his course as originally planned. So he 
had the samples secretly placed on board of one of the 
ships, and cautioned those who knew of the find to say 
nothing about it while they remained at St. John's lest 
the "foreigners" there — the "Portugals, Biscanes, and 
Frenchmen" — should learn of it; when they were again 
safe at sea the ore should be tested, and if it were then 
desired he would bring the company back to St. John's. 

By this time disorder had appeared among the rougher 
elements of the company, and some were plotting mis- 
chief. A number were discovered scheming to steal 
the ships at an opportune moment when the general 
and captains were on shore, and make ofF with them, 
perhaps on a buccaneering cruise. But this happily was 
nipped in the bud. Others banding together seized a 
fishing bark full laden in a neighbouring harbour and 
set the fishermen ashore. A larger number hid them- 
selves in the woods, intending to return home by such 
shipping as daily left the coast. Many of the loyal 
members fell sick and several died. Numbers in ill 
health were licensed by the general to return to England 
as best they could. Thus by one means and another 
the company were much diminished, and when it was 
decided to start for the voyage southward there were 
scarcely enough sound men to furnish the ships. 

In this dilemma Sir Humphrey thought it better to 



Gilbert's Voyages 297 

drop the "Swallow" out of the fleet and send her home 
to England with the sick members. The captain of 
the "Delight" was assigned to take charge of her, while 
her own captain and crew (including the fellows who had 
indulged in piracy on the high seas) were shifted to the 
"Delight." The captain of the "Squirrel" was also 
relieved of his command to return on the "Swallow." 

The remainder of the fleet, the "Delight," the "Gold- 
en Hind," and the "Squirrel," — supplied as generously 
as if they had been in a "countrey or some Citie popu- 
lous and plentiful of all things," besides necessities in 
fresh and dried fish and rusk, having rich stocks of 
wines, marmalades, figs, lemons, and other delicacies, 
nets and lines for fishing, and pinnaces "fit for dis- 
covery," — set sail for the continuance of the voyage on 
the twentieth of August, seventeen days after their first 
arrival in St. John's harbour: never to return to this 
port. Sir Humphrey chose to sail in the "Squirrel" 
instead of in the flagship, the smaller vessel being the 
more convenient for exploring the coast and searching 
harbours and creeks. Accordingly she was supplied 
from one of the other ships with additional ordnance 
for protection in case of trouble, and so was over- 
weighted, which in the end wrought her ruin, as we 
shall presently see. 

The course was taken toward Cape Breton with the 
intent to reach the mainland of North America. Eight 
days were spent in this navigation, all the time out of 
sight of land, the ships being hindered by the current. 
On the seventh day they fell "into such flats and dan- 



298 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

gers" that all barely escaped wreck, and two days 
later the flagship, — the "Delight," — went down with 
most of her men and all of her cargo. 

Now the narrative becomes tragic. "The maner 
how our Admirall was lost" is thus circumstantially 
described, with due note of "portents" that foreran 
the disaster. 

"Upon Tuesday the 27 of August, toward the evening, 
our Generall caused them in his frigat [the "Squirrel" 
to sound, who found white sande at 35 fadome, being 
then in latitude about 44 degrees. 

"Wednesday toward night the wind came South and 
wee [the "Golden Hind"] bare with the land all that 
night, Westnorthwest, contrary to the mind of Master 
Cox [the "Golden Hind's" master]; nevertheless we 
followed the Admirall deprived of power to prevent 
a mischiefe, which by no contradiction could be brought 
to hold other course, alleaging they could not make the 
ship to work better nor to lie otherwaies. 

"The evening was faire and pleasant, yet not with- 
out token of storme to ensue, and most part of this 
Wednesday night, like the Swanne that singeth before 
her death, they in the Admirall, or Delight, continued 
a sounding of Trumpets, with Drummes, and Fifes; 
also winding the Cornets, Haughtboyes; and in the end 
of their jolitie, left with the battell and ringing of doleful 
knels. 

"Towards the evening also we caught in the Golden 
Hinde a mighty Porpose, with a harping yron, having 
first striken divers of them, and brought away part of 



Gilbert's Voyages 299 

their flesh, sticking upon the yron, but could recover 
onely that one. These also passing the Ocean in 
heardes did portend storme. I omit to recite frivilous 
reportes by them in the Frigat of strange voyces, the 
same night, which scarred some from the helme. 

"Thursday the 29 of August, the wind rose, and blew 
vehemently at South and by East, bringing with all 
raine, and thick mist, so that we could not see a cable 
length before us. And betimes in the morning we were 
altogither runne and folded in amongst flats and sands, 
amongst which we found shoale and deepe in every 
three or four shippes length, after we began to sound: 
but first we were upon them unawares, till master Cox 
looking out discerned (in his judgement) white cliffes, 
crying (land) withall, though we could not afterward 
descrie any land, it being very likely the breaking of the 
sea white, which seemed to be white cliffes through the 
haze and thicke weather. 

" Immediately tokens were given unto the Delight to 
cast about to seaward, which, being the greater ship 
and of burden 120 tunnes, was yet foremost upon the 
beach, keeping so ill watch that they knew not the danger 
before they felt the same, too late to recover it: for 
presently the Admirall strooke a ground, and had soone 
after her sterne and hinder partes beaten in pieces: 
whereupon the rest (that is to say the Frigat on which 
was the Generall and the Golden Hinde) cast about 
Eastnortheast, bearing to the South, even for our lives 
into the windes eye, because that way caried us to the 
seaward. Making out from this danger, we sounded one 



300 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

while seven fadome, then five fadome, then foure 
fadome and lesse, againe deeper, immediately foure 
fadome, then but three fadome, the sea going mightily 
and high. 

"At last we recovered (God be thanked) in some 
despaire,to sea roome enough. In this distresse wee had 
vigilant eye unto the Admirall, whom we saw cast away, 
without power to give the men succour, neither could 
we espie of the men that leaped overboord to save them- 
selves, either in the same Pinnesse, or Cocke, or upon 
rafters, and such like meanes, presenting themselves 
to men in those extremities: for we desired to save the 
men by every possible meanes. But all in vaine, sith 
God had determined their ruine: yet all that day, and 
part of the next, we beat up and downe as neere unto 
the wracke as was possible for us, looking out, if by 
good hap we might espie any of them." 

In this wreck perished almost a hundred men. Among 
them was Stephanus Parmenius, a learned Hungarian, 
who was to have been the historian of the voyage. He 
had written a Latin poem, a few years before, extolling 
Sir Humphrey's achievements, which is preserved in 
the Principal Navigations. While at St. John's he 
wrote a letter to the elder Richard Hakluyt, of the 
Middle Temple, briefly recounting the events of the 
voyage to that time, which was probably despatched 
on the returning "Swallow." This letter Hakluyt 
gives with the literature of this expedition. Daniel, 
the Saxon, was another of the lost, and with him per- 
ished most of his evidences of "inestimable riches" in 



Gilbert's Voyages 301 

silver at Newfoundland. Also went down with this 
ship " cards and plats " that the draughtsmen had drawn, 
with the due gradation of the harbours, bays, and capes. 
Captain Brown stood by his ship to the last, refusing 
to take to the pinnace running at her stern. He chose 
"rather to die then [than] to incurre infamie by forsak- 
ing his charge, which then might be thought to have 
perished through his default." So, when all hope of 
saving her was passed, exhorting his men "not to de- 
spair but strive to save what they could," he "mounted 
upon the highest decke where hee attended imminent 
death and unavoidable." 

Fourteen escaped in the pinnace, and "committed 
themselves to God's mercy amiddest the storme and 
rage of sea and windes, destitute of foode, not so much 
as a droppe of fresh water." The little boat was over- 
loaded for such foul weather, and to lighten her one of 
her company, Edward Headly, a "valiant soldier," 
proposed that they should cast lots, those upon whom 
the lots fell to be thrown overboard, and offered him- 
self with the first "content to take his adventure gladly." 
But Richard Clark, the master of their lost "Delight," 
who was of the number, protested, advising them "to 
abide Gods pleasure, who was able to save all as well 
as a few." So they held together, and after six days 
and nights in the open ocean, carried before the wind, 
they arrived on the coast of Newfoundland, weak and 
famished, all save two, — the valiant soldier Headly, and 
a sailor called " Brazil," because of his travels in that 
country. Later they were taken off by some kindly 



302 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

French fishermen, and ultimately reached their homes 
by way of France. 

The "Golden Hind" and the "Squirrel" continued 
for two days "beating the sea up and downe," expecting 
when the weather cleared to bear in with the land 
which it was judged was not far off, "either the conti- 
nent or some Island." But it remained thick and 
blustering with increase of cold, and the men began to 
lose courage. "The Leeside of us lay full of flats and 
dangers inevitable, if the wind blew hard at South. 
Some againe doubted we were ingulfed in the Bay of 
S. Lawrence, and coast full of dangers, and unto us 
unknowen. But above all, provisions waxed scant, 
and hope of supply was gone with losse of our Admirall. 
Those of the Frigat were already pinched with spare 
allowance, and want of clothes chiefly." Thereupon 
the "Squirrel's" men besought the general to head for 
England before they all perished. "And to them of 
the Golden Hinde they made signes of their distresse, 
pointing to their mouthes, and to their clothes thinne 
and ragged: then immediately they of the Golden 
Hinde grew to be of the same opinion and desire to 
return home." 

Finally the return was agreed upon. Sir Humphrey 
expressed himself satisfied with what he had seen and 
knew already, and promised to set them forth again 
"right royally" the next spring if "God sent them 
safe home." 

So in the afternoon of Saturday the thirty-first of 
August they changed their course for the homeward 



Gilbert's Voyages 303 

run. At that very instant, " even in the winding about, " 
a wondrous thing met their astonished gaze. 

Between them and toward the land they were now 
forsaking there passed along a strange monster of the 
sea: a "very lion" to their seeming, "in shape, hair, 
and colour, swimming after the maner of a beast by 
mooving of his feete, but rather sliding upon the water 
with his whole body (excepting the legs) in sight, 
neither yet diving under, and againe rising above the 
water, as the maner is of Whales, Dolphins, Tunise, 
Porposes, and all other fish: but confidently shewing 
himselfe above water without hiding: Notwithstand- 
ing we presented ourselves in open view and gesture 
to amase him, as all creatures will be commonly at a 
sudden gaze and sight of men. Thus he passed along 
turning his head to and fro, yawning and gaping wide, 
with ougly demonstration of long teeth, and glaring 
eies, and to bidde us farewell (comming right against 
the Hinde) he sent forth a horrible voyce, roaring or 
bellowing as doeth a lion, which spectacle wee all 
beheld so farre as we were able to discerne the same, as 
men prone to wonder at every strange thing, as this 
doubtless was, to see a lion in the Ocean sea, or fish in 
shape of a lion. What opinion others had thereof, and 
chiefly the Generall himselfe, I forbeare to deliver; 
but he took it for Bonum Omen, rejoycing that he 
was to warre against such an enemie, if it were the 
devill." 

The wind was "large" for England at the start but 
very high, and the sea rough, insomuch that the "Squir- 



304 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

rel" was almost swallowed up. On Monday the 
general came aboard the "Golden Hind" to have her 
surgeon dress his foot, which he had hurt by treading 
upon a nail on the "Squirrel's" deck. While here he 
and the "Hind's" officers "comforted ech other with 
hope of hard successe to be all past, and of the good to 
come." It was agreed that both ships should show 
their lights always by night that they might keep to- 
gether. The general was entreated to remain on the 
" Hind," where he would be far safer than on the little 
"Squirrel," but refused. Immediately after his return 
to the "Squirrel" a sharp storm arose, but this both 
ships, though in much peril, happily "overpassed." 

A morning or two later, the weather having at last 
become fair, the general again came aboard the " Golden 
Hind" to "make merie together with the Captaine, 
Master and company." This was their last meeting 
with him. He remained with them throughout the 
day till nightfall. Their talk fell upon "affaires past 
and to come." Sir Humphrey lamented much the loss 
of the "Delight": "more of the men, but most of all 
of his bookes and notes," and of something else which 
he avoided mentioning, but for which he was "out of 
measure grieved." This something the narrator gath- 
ered "by circumstance" to be the ore specimens which 
had gone down with Daniel the Saxon. "Whatsoever 
it was," the narrator noted, "the remembrance touched 
him so deepe as, not able to containe himselfe, he beat 
his boy [the cabin boy] in great rage even at the same 
time so long after the miscarying of the great ship, be- 



Gilbert's Voyages 305 

cause upon a faire day, when wee were becalmed upon 
the coast of the New found land, ... he [had] sent 
his boy aboord the Admirall to fetch certaine things: 
amongst which this [the ore] being chiefe was yet for- 
gotten and left behind. After which time he could 
never conveniently send againe aboord the great ship, 
much lesse hee doubted her ruine so neere at hand." 
That Daniel the Saxon's find and the existence of rich 
mines in Newfoundland, which it seemed to warrant, 
had wrought a radical change in Sir Humphrey's plans, 
had become apparent in his actions and in this last 
talk. Says the narrator, "Whereas the generall had 
never before good conceit of these North parts of the 
world: now his mind was wholly fixed upon the New 
found land. And as before he refused not to grant 
assignments liberally to them that required the same 
into these Northern parts, now he became contrarily 
afFected, refusing to make any so large grants especially 
in S. Johns. . . . Also his expression of a determina- 
tion in the Spring following for disposing of his voyage 
then to be reattempted: he assigned the captaine and 
master of the Golden Hind unto the South discovery, 
and reserved unto himself the North, affirming that this 
voyage had wonne his heart from the South, and that he 
was now become a Northerne man altogether." 

Again he was vehemently entreated by the captain, 
master, and others of his "well willers" to stay on the 
" Golden Hind " for the remainder of the voyage. They 
dwelt on the preciousness of his life and the dangerous 
condition of the "Squirrel" with her decks overcharged 



306 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

with guns, small artillery, nettings "too cumbersome 
for so small a boate that was to pass through the Ocean 
sea at that season of the yere," when much foul weather 
was to be expected. But these entreaties were in vain 
as before. All were swept aside with his final answer, 
"I will not forsake my little company going homeward 
with whom I have passed so many stormes and perils." 
Since he would not "bend to reason," such provisions 
as were wanting on the "Squirrel" were furnished from 
the "Hind," and then, committing him to "God's pro- 
tection," he was reluctantly and sorrowfully set aboard 
his pinnace. 

The ships were by this time more than three hundred 
leagues onward of their way home. They had brought 
the Azores south of them : but were then keeping much 
to the North to get into "the height and elevation" of 
England. This attained they met with very bad 
weather and terrible seas breaking short and high, 
"Pyramid wise." 

Then came the final catastrophe. 

" Munday the ninth of September, in the afternoone, 
the Frigat was neere cast away, oppressed by waves, yet 
at that time recovered : and giving forth signes of joy, 
the Generall sitting abaft with a booke in his hand, cried 
out to us in the Hind (so oft as we did approach within 
hearing), We are as neere to heaven by sea as by land. 
Reiterating the same speech, well beseeming a souldier, 
resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can testifie he was. 

"The same Monday night, about twelve of the clocke, 
or not long after, the Frigat being ahead of us in the 



Gilbert's Voyages 307 



Golden Hinde, suddenly her lights were out, whereof as 
it were in a moment, we lost the sight, and withall our 
watch cryed, the Generall was cast away, which was too 
true. For in that moment the Frigat was devoured and 
swallowed up of the Sea." 

All that night the "Golden Hinde" kept up a constant 
lookout hoping to sight her again. But not a fragment 
of her could be seen or a single survivor. 

Then the "Hind" continued on the course alone, 
still maintaining the lookout. A length, after "great 
torment of weather and perill of drowning," she came 
safely to a home port, with her doleful tale of disaster, 
arriving at Falmouth on the twenty-second of Septem- 
ber — a Sunday. 



XIX 

FOOTPRINTS OF COLONIZATION 

UPON the lamentable death of Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert, and the consequent failure of his 
scheme of colonization, Walter Raleigh imme- 
diately took up the cause energetically, with a view of 
attempting a settlement on the continent in the milder 
southern clime; and within nineteen months, or about 
a year and a half, after the return home of the forlorn 
remnant of Sir Humphrey's expedition, Raleigh's first 
company of American colonists sailed out of Plymouth 
bound for the salubrious country then comprised in 
"Virginia." 

Raleigh's patent, obtained from Queen Elizabeth in 
March, 1584, in the securing of which, as we have seen, 
Hakluyt's writings were so influential, constituted him 
a lord proprietary with almost unlimited jurisdiction 
over a vast region indefinitely defined. Its provisions 
were similar to those of Gilbert's patent but more ample. 
It licensed him, his heirs and assigns, to "discover, 
search, find out, and view such remote, heathen, and 
barbarous lands, countries, and territories not actually 
possessed by any Christian prince, nor inhabited by 

308 



Footprints of Colonization 309 

Christian people," as to him, his heirs and assigns, 
should seem good; and to hold, occupy, and enjoy such 
lands and regions with all "prerogatives, commodities, 
jurisdictions, royalties, priviledges, franchises, and pre- 
eminences thereto or thereabouts both by sea and land, 
whatsoever" the queen by her letters-patent might 
grant, and as she or "any of our noble projenitors" had 
heretofore granted to "any person or persons, bodies 
politique or corporate": the proviso, as in Gilbert's 
patent, being made that a fifth part of all the "oare of 
golde and silver" that should be obtained be reserved 
for the queen. Powers to make laws for the govern- 
ment of a colony were conferred, these ordinances to be, 
as near as conveniently might be, agreeable to the Eng- 
lish form of statutes, and not against the faith pro- 
fessed by the Church of England. They were to be in 
force over all who should from time to time " advantage 
themselves in the said journeis or voyages," or that 
should at any time inhabit "any such lands, countries 
or territories aforesaid," or that should abide within 
two hundred leagues of the place or places that Raleigh's 
companies should inhabit within six years from the date 
of the patent. Raleigh might make grants from his 
territory at his pleasure. 

Hakluyt gives the text of the patent in the Principal 
Navigations under this title: "The letters patents 
granted by the Queenes Majestie to M. Walter Ralegh, 
now Knight, for the discovering and planting of new 
lands and Countries, to continue the space of 6 yeeres 
and no more." 



310 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 



Raleigh was now high in the queen's favor, and with 
large influence at court. He was in or about his 
thirty-second year, of rugged manhood, handsome, and 
debonair. The son of a country gentleman, well con- 
nected through his father's three marriages with 
families of prominence, and taking young to adventure, 
he was early concerned in lively affairs. He was born 
about the year 1552, at Hayes, near Budlegh Salterton, 
South Devonshire, the second son of his father's third 
wife, who was the widow of Otho Gilbert and the 
mother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Through his 
father's first wife, who was Joan Drake, he was related 
to Sir Francis Drake. His own brother was Sir Carew 
Raleigh, who was concerned with him in Gilbert's 
first expedition of 1578. As a boy he became interested 
in seamanship and the life of the sea from talks with 
sailors returned from distant voyages. At fifteen he 
was at Oxford, entered in Oriel College. At seventeen 
he was serving as a volunteer in the French Huguenot 
army. He remained in France through the next five 
years. Back in London in 1576, he was variously em- 
ployed. The next year, or early in 1578, he was warring 
in the Low Countries under Sir John Norris. Later 
in September he was at Dartmouth, busied with Hum- 
phrey Gilbert in fitting out the fleet for that year's 
venture, in which he sailed in command of the "Falcon." 
In 1580 he was serving in Ireland as captain of a com- 
pany, and he had part in the awful and cruel massacre 
atSomerwich in November of that year. Toward the end 
of 158 1 he was sent home to England with despatches 




SIR WALTER RALEIGH AT THE AGE OF 34. 

From a photograph, copyrighted by Walker & Cockerell, of the portrait attributed 
to Federigo Zuccaro in the National Portrait Gallery. 



Footprints of Colonization 311 

from the new governor of Miinster. Coming to the 
court he attracted the fancy of the queen by his manly 
presence, bearing, and gallantry, and he rose instantly 
into the royal favor. With this time is dated the tradi- 
tion of his spreading his new plush coat over a muddy 
way for the queen to walk upon. He was granted 
lucrative monopolies, particularly the "wine licenses," 
the profits of which enabled him liberally to prosecute 
the schemes of Western adventure he was then develop- 
ing. 

Raleigh's patent received the royal signature on the 
twenty-fifth day of March, 1584, and only a month later, 
as we have seen (Chapter I), his preliminary expedition, 
comprising his two barks under the experienced cap- 
tains Amadas and Barlow, charged to investigate, 
hasten back, and report, had sailed off; and under the 
inspiration of the warm-coloured story that these 
captains told upon their return in September, the first 
colonization band was formed. This fascinating nar- 
rative, therefore, is the prologue to the epic of true 
English colonization in America, culminating in the 
permanent settlement at Jamestown. 

It appears in full in the Principal Navigations with 
this caption: "The first voyage made to the coasts of 
America with two barks, where in were Captaines M. 
Philip Amidas, and M. Arthur Barlowe, who discovered 
part of the Countrey now called Virginia, Anno 1584. 
Written by one of the said Captaines, and sent to sir 
Walter Ralegh knight, at whose charge and direction the 
said voyage was set forth." Barlow was the author. 



312 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

The captains set sail on the twenty-seventh of April, 
taking the southern course by the West Indies toward 
the coast of Florida. Their landfall, now reckoned to 
have been shoals out from Capes Fear and Hatteras,was 
made on the fourth of July. Their approach was 
propitious, for as they struck shoal water two days 
before, by which they were assured that land was not 
far off, they "smelt so sweet and so strong a smel as 
if we had bene in the midst of some delicate garden 
abounding in all kinds of odoriferous flowers." They 
first supposed the coast they saw to be that of a continent 
and " firme land." They ranged along it northward 
some "hundred and twentie English miles," seeking an 
opening. At length they came to an inlet which they en- 
tered, " not withoutsome difficultie," and dropped anchor 
"about three harquebuz-shot" within the haven's 
mouth. Just where this inlet was has been a matter of 
long discussion by historical investigators. Some have 
confidently identified it with Ocracoke, now Oregon In- 
let: others with New Inlet. A later authority (Talcott 
Williams) designated it as a passage long ago closed by 
the drifting sands, north of Roanoke Island, and near 
Collington Island. After giving thanks to God for 
their safe arrival thither, they manned their small boats 
and went ashore on the " island of Wocokon" (identified 
as Collington Island); and here forthwith performed 
the ceremony of taking possession of the region "in the 
right of the Queenes most excellent Majestie, as rightful 
Queene and Princesse of the same," and for Raleigh 
under his patent. 



- ' 

Footprints of Colonization 313 

This ceremony over, they viewed the land about them. 
While sandy and low by the waterside it soon rose into 
fair little hills. Close by the water's edge were masses 
of grape vines. So "full of grapes" indeed was the 
place that "the very beating and surging of the Sea 
overflowed them." There was such plenty "as well 
there as in all places else, both on the sand and on the 
greene soile on the hils, as in the plaines, as well as 
every little shrubb, as also climing towardes the tops 
of high Cedars," that the narrator thought that in all 
the world the "like abundance" was not to be found: 
and he was a much-travelled man. Ascending one of 
the little hills they saw the place to be an island and 
not the main. Below them they beheld valleys "re- 
plenished with goodly Cedar trees." Upon discharging 
their "harquebuz-shot" such a flock of cranes, mostly 
white ones, rose that their cry "redoubled by many 
echoes" was "as if an armie of men had showted to- 
gether." The island was seen to be rich in "many 
goodly woodes full of Deere, Conies, Hares, and Fowle, 
even in the middest of Summer in incredible abun- 
dance." The woods contained "the highest and red- 
dest Cedars of the world . . . Pynes, Cypres, Sarsa- 
phras, the Lentisk,or the tree that beareth the Masticke, 
the tree that beareth the vine of blacke Sinamon, of 
which Master Winter [of Drake's fleet that entered the 
Pacific] brought from the straights of Magellan, and 
many other of excellent smel and qualitie." 

They remained at this island for two whole days 
before they had sight of any natives. On the third day 



314 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

when on ship-board they espied a canoe paddling to- 
ward them with three Indians in it. When it had 
come within "fbure harquebuz-shot" of their ships it 
put into the point of land nearest to them. Two of its 
three occupants went up into the island, while the other 
walked to and fro along the point, viewing the ships 
with evident interest. Then the two captains and a 
few others rowed to the shore to meet him. As they ap- 
proached he made no shew of "feare or doubt." After 
he had spoken with them "of many things" which they 
could not understand, he was invited by gestures to 
visit the ships, which he showed was quite to his liking. 
On board he was entertained with a taste of their wine 
and their bread, which he "liked very much," and was 
given a shirt, a hat, and some other things. When he 
had viewed both barks to his satisfaction, he was sent 
back ashore. Again taking his canoe which he had 
left in a creek he fell a-fishing not far from the ships, 
and in less than half an hour he had laden his boat 
"as deepe as it could swimme." Then returning to the 
point of land nearest the ships he here divided his fish 
into two parts, pointing one part to one of the ships and 
one to the other. And so, "as much as he might," 
requiting the benefits he had received from the English- 
men, he departed from their sight. 

The next day a considerable body of natives appeared 
and formally made the Englishmen welcome: 

"There came unto us divers boates, and in one of 
them the king's brother, accompanied with fortie or 
fiftie men, very handsome and goodly people, and in 



Footprints of Colonization 315 

their behaviour as mannerly and civill as any of Europe. 
His name was Granganimeo, and the king is called 
Wingina, the countrey Wingandacoa. The maner of 
his comming was in this sort: hee left his boates alto- 
gether, as the first man did a little from the shippes 
by the shore, and came along to the place over against 
the shippes followed with fortie men. 

"When he came to the place his servants spread a 
long matte upon the ground on which he sate downe, 
and at the other ende of the matte foure others of his 
companie did the like, the rest of his men stood round 
about him, somewhat afarre off: when we came to the 
shore to him with our weapons, hee never moved from 
his place, nor any of the other foure, nor never mis- 
trusted any harme to be offred from us, but sitting still 
he beckoned us to come and sit by him, which we per- 
formed : and being set hee made all signes of joy and wel- 
come, striking on his head and his breast and afterwardes 
on ours, to shew wee were all one, smiling and making 
shew the best he could of all love and familiaritie. 

"After he had made a long speech unto us, wee pre- 
sented him with divers things, which he received very 
joyfully and thankfully. None of the companie durst 
speake one worde all the time: onely the foure which 
were at the other ende, spake one in the others eare 
very softly." 

The king himself, it was explained, could not appear, 
for he was lying at the chief town of the country, six 
days' journey off, sore wounded from a fight with the 
king of "the next countrie." 



316 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

A day or two after this welcoming meeting the Eng- 
lishmen fell to trade with the natives, exchanging 
various trinkets for "chamoys, buffe, and Deere skin- 
nes." A bright tin dish had more attractions than 
anything else in their packet of merchandise. One of 
the natives "clapt" it on his breast and making a hole 
in the rim hung it about his neck as a shield, with 
gestures to indicate that it would defend him against 
his enemies' arrows. The dish was exchanged for 
twenty skins worth twenty English crowns. A copper 
kettle was traded for fifty skins worth as many crowns. 
The natives offered good exchange for hatchets, axes, 
and knives, and would have given anything for swords: 
but with these the Englishmen would not part. The 
king's brother took a special fancy to the Englishmen's 
armor. He offered to lay a great box of pearls in gage 
for a suit, together with a sword and a few other things. 
His offer was declined for the reason that the captains 
did not want him to know how highly they prized the 
pearls till they had learned in "what places the pearls 
grew." They afterward apparently satisfied them- 
selves on this point, when, in an exploration of a neigh- 
bouring river, they found "great store of Muskles in 
which there are pearles." 

After a few days Granganimeo came aboard the ships 
and was entertained like the first visitor, with wine, 
meat, and bread, to his great pleasure. Another day 
he brought his wife, daughter, and two or three children 
aboard. The wife was of small stature, "very well 
favoured, and very bashful." She was attired in a long 



Footprints of Colonization 317 

cloak of skin with the fur inwards. Her forehead was 
adorned with a band of white coral. From her ears 
depended "bracelets" of pearls, each pearl, of the size of 
a pea, extending to her waist. Her women attendants, 
who remained on the shore, some forty of them, during 
her visit, had pendants of copper in their ears, and 
some of Granganimeo's children and those of other 
"noble" men wore five or six in each ear. Grangani- 
meo's apparel was a cloak like his wife's, and on his 
head was a broad plate of gold or copper. The women 
wore their hair long on both sides, the men on but 
one. These natives were of a yellowish colour and 
generally with black hair. 

Their boats were made out of whole trees, either 
pine or pitch trees. Their manner of constructing 
them was thus: "They burne downe some great tree 
or take such as are winde fallen, and putting gumme 
and rosen on one side thereof they set fire unto it, and 
when it hath burnt it hollow, they cut out the coale 
with their shels, and even where they would burne it 
deeper or wider they lay on gummes which burne away 
the timber, and by this meanes they fashion very fine 
boates, and such as will transport twentie men." Their 
oars were "like scoopes," and "many times they set 
with long pooles as the depth serveth." 

The king's brother was very just in keeping his 
promises and generous with supplies. Every day he 
sent to the ships a brace or two of fat "Bucks, Conies, 
Hares, Fish the best of the world." Also " divers 
kindes of fruites, Melons, Walnuts, Cucumbers, 



318 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Gourdes, Pease, and divers roots," and of their "coun- 
trey corne, which is very white, faire, and well tasted, 
and groweth three times in five moneths." The Eng- 
lishmen "proved" the soil, putting some pease into the 
ground; in less than ten days, the narrator averred, they 
were of "fourteene ynches high." The natives also 
raised beans "very faire of divers colours and wonder- 
ful plentie: some growing naturally, and some in their 
gardens"; and both wheat and oats. The soil was de- 
clared to be "the most plentifull, sweete, fruitfull and 
wholesome of all the worlde." There were counted 
fourteen or more different "sweete smeling" timber 
trees. The most part of the underwoods were " Bayes 
and such like." There were oaks like those of England, 
but "farre greater and better." 

The narrator with seven others went "twentie miles 
into the river that runneth towarde the citie of Skiwak 
[Indian village], which river they [the natives] call Oc- 
cam, and in the evening following . . . came to an 
island which they call Roanoak." At the north end 
of this island was a village of nine houses built of cedar 
and fortified round with sharp trees to keep out their 
enemies, the entrance being "made like a turne pike 
very artificially." This village was the home of 
Granganimeo. As they neared it his wife came running 
down to the waterside to meet them. Granganimeo was 
not then in the village, and his spouse did the honours 
of host most graciously. She bade some of her people 
to draw the Englishmen's boat through the beating 
billows to the shore; others to carry the visitors on their 



Footprints of Colonization 319 

backs to the dry ground; others to take their oars to 
her house lest the boat might be stolen. After they 
were come into her dwelling, a hut of five rooms, they 
were sat by a great fire while their wet garments were 
washed and dried by her women, she herself in the mean- 
time taking "great paines to see all things ordered in 
the best maner shee could," and "making great haste 
to dress some meat" for their supper. When they had 
comfortably dried themselves they were conducted 
into an inner room where, "on the board standing along 
the house," a tempting banquet of venison, fruits, and 
wheat foods was spread. The whole entertainment 
was marked by "all love and kindnesse, and with as 
much bountie (after their maner) as they could possibly 
devise." Here, as in their other experiences, the 
Englishmen found the people " most gentle, loving, and 
faithful, voide of all guile and treason, and such as live 
after the maner of the golden age." 

Throughout the visit at Roanoke their hostess was 
assiduous for their welfare. This was most energetic- 
ally displayed in an incident while they were at supper. 
"There came in at the gates two or three men with their 
bowes and arrowes from hunting, whom when wee 
espied we beganne to looke one towardes another, and 
offered to reach our weapons: but assoonas she espied 
our mistrust shee was very much mooved, and caused 
some of her men to runne out, and take away their 
bowes and arrowes and breake them and withall beate 
the poore fellowes out of the gate againe." When as 
the evening waned the Englishmen made ready to return 



320 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

to their boats, declining the hospitality of the village 
over night, she had the viands left over from the supper, 
"pottes and all," carried to their craft. When they 
embarked and rowed off a "prettie" distance from the 
shore, there to lie through the night, she was much 
grieved at this evidence of mistrust, and again entreated 
them to rest in the houses of the village. And when they 
still declined, she sent "divers men and thirtie women 
to sit all night on the banke side" opposite them; and 
as rain began to fall mats were sent out to them for 
protection against the storm. The narrator explained 
that they were thus cautious because they were "fewe 
men," and if they had "miscaried" the expedition 
would have been in great danger, so they "durst not 
adventure any thing." Yet they had no cause to doubt 
the sincerity of these natives, "for a more kinde and 
loving people there can not be founde in the worlde, 
as farre as we have hitherto had trial." 

On other days further explorations were made around 
Albemarle Sound, and information more or less authen- 
tic was gathered from the natives as to Indian towns, 
and relations between the tribes and the several kings 
of the region round about. They found that beyond 
the islands lay the mainland. They were told of the 
greatest Indian city called "Scicoak," on the "River 
Occam " : of another great town on a tributary of this 
river, under a "free lord," independent of neighbouring 
kings; and another, four days' journey southwest of 
Roanoke, called "Sequotan," or "Secotan." The 
friendship of the natives increased in warmth on closer 



Footprints of Colonization 321 

intercourse with the Englishmen. Their interest in 
the English ships was unbounded. Whenever a gun 
was discharged, "were it but a hargubuz," they would 
tremble "for the strangeness of the same." Their own 
weapons were principally slender bows and arrows. 
The arrows were small canes headed with a sharp shell 
or a fish's tooth, but "sufficient ynough to kill a naked 
man." They used swords of hardened wood, and a 
sort of club with the sharp horns of a stag fastened at 
the heavy end. They wore wooden breastplates for 
defence. When they went to war they carried with 
them "their idol of whom they aske counsel as the 
Romans were woont of the Oracle of Apollo." They 
sang songs as they marched forth to battle instead of 
sounding drums and trumpets. Their wars were "very 
cruel and bloody." For this reason, and as a result of 
civil dissensions that had happened among them in re- 
cent years, the people of the region were " marvellously 
wasted, and in some places the countrey [was] left 
desolate." 

When the reconnoitering captains finally set sail for 
the return to England they carried with them two of 
the natives, "lustie men," Wanchese and Manteo by 
name. Manteo afterward became of considerable ser- 
vice to the first two colonies, and rose to the distinction 
of a native American baron — the " Lord of Roanoak," 
as will duly appear with the development of the story of 
colonization in the following chapters. 



XX 

"VIRGINIA" 

THE country to which Queen Elizabeth gave the 
name "Virginia," upon the return of Raleigh's 
reconnoitering captains in September, 1584, with 
their flattering report, comprehended vaguely the whole 
of the seaboard of North America above Florida to a 
point toward Newfoundland, and inland indefinitely. 
In the following Spring Raleigh's first company of in- 
tended colonists were ready to depart for the fruitful 
region, the attractions of which Captains Amadas and 
Barlow had set forth so enchantingly. 

This pioneer band comprised gentlemen of stand- 
ing, experienced navigators, younger sons of noble 
houses or gentry seeking adventure, restless spirits with 
an eye for pelf, hardy sailors. Ralph Lane at the head 
as governor, was a sailor-soldier of merit, and when 
invited by Raleigh to this post was serving in Ireland. 
Captain Amadas, of the reconnoitering expedition, was 
Lane's deputy, afterward designated "admiral of the 
country" — Virginia. Thomas Hariot, or Harriot, named 
as surveyor, and also to be the historian of the colony, 
had been Raleigh's tutor: he became in after years dis- 

322 



" Virginia " 323 

tinguished as a mathematician and astronomer, and 
materially advanced the science of algebra. John 
White, to be the principal draughtsman, was a man of 
affairs as well as a painter of some note, and was later 
to become governor of Raleigh's second colony and 
grandfather of the first English child born in North 
America — Virginia Dare; and in his drawings, with 
those of the artist Le Moine, of the Huguenot colony in 
Florida, 1562-1566 (afterward in London a "servant" 
of Raleigh's), we have the first accurate knowledge of 
the North American Indian and of the natural history 
of the country. Sir Richard Grenville, a cousin of 
Raleigh's, a British naval hero, was the general of the 
fleet assembled to carry the company out. Captain 
Thomas Cavendish, navigator and freebooter, soon to 
circumnavigate the globe, was commander of one of the 
ships. The two Indians, Wanchese and Manteo, whom 
Amadas and Barlow brought home with them, were 
joined to the company as guides. 

The fleet comprised seven sail: the "Tiger," admiral 
or flagship, of one hundred and forty tons; a "Flie-boat 
called the Roe-bucke, of the like burden"; the "Lyon," 
one hundred tons, "or thereabouts"; the "Elizabeth," 
fifty tons; the "Dorithie," a small bark; and two small 
pinnaces. They weighed anchor and sailed out of 
Plymouth harbour on the ninth of April, 1585. The 
outward voyage was a leisurely one, with stops at Porto 
Rico, Hispaniola, and other places, and with seizures of 
Spanish prizes along the way, so that their destination 
at Wocokon and Roanoke Island was not reached till 



324 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

the end of June. Their sometimes exciting adventures 
on this passage are summarily related in the diary of one 
of the company, which Hakluyt gives with this unusually 
brief caption: "The voiage made by Sir Richard 
Greenvile for Sir Walter Ralegh to Virginia in the 
yeere 1585." 

The longest stop was made off Porto Rico, at the 
" Island of S. John de Porto Rico." Here a temporary 
fort was erected close to the seaside, and backed by 
woods, and within it a pinnace was built from timber, 
some of which was cut three miles up the land and 
brought upon trucks to the fort, the few Spaniards on 
the island "not daring to make or offer resistance." 
One day while they were at this work eight horsemen 
appeared out of the woods about a quarter of a mile 
back, and there halting, stood silently gazing upon them 
for half an hour; then, a company of ten of their men 
being started out in marching order, the horsemen dis- 
appeared in the woods. Another day a sail was seen 
afar off approaching their haven. Supposing her to be 
either a Spanish or a French warship, the "Tiger" was 
made ready and went out to meet her. As the strange 
craft was neared, however, she was discovered to be 
Captain Cavendish's ship of their own fleet, which had 
been separated from them at sea in a storm. Thereat 
there was rejoicing instead of a fight, and the ships' guns 
were discharged in mutual peaceful salutes. Again, on 
another day, a second and a larger band of horsemen 
appeared, and nearer the fort. Twenty footmen and 
two horsemen, the latter mounted on Spanish horses 



"Virginia" 325 

that had been seized, were sent against them. When 
the Englishmen were within hailing distance the Span- 
iards displayed a flag of truce, and made signs for a 
parley. Two from each side accordingly came together 
on the sands between the two lines. The Spanish 
representatives offered "very great salutations" to the 
English, but expostulated against the Englishmen's 
coming and fortifying in their country. The English 
representatives assured them that their company were 
here only to furnish themselves with water, victuals, 
and other necessities of which they stood in need. They 
hoped the Spaniards would yield these to them "with 
faire and friendly meanes"; but if this were not done 
they were resolved to "practice force" and relieve 
themselves by the sword. At this the Spaniards, with 
"all courtesie and great favour," expressed their readi- 
ness to render every assistance, and promised a supply 
of provisions. And so the parley ended graciously. 

The very next day the pinnace was finished and 
launched. Then the general, with his captains and 
gentlemen, marched up into the country to meet 
the Spaniards with the promised provisions. But the 
Spaniards came not. Whereupon the general fired 
the woods roundabout, and his party marched back to 
their fort. Later, the same day, they fired their fort and 
all embarked to sail the next morning on their course. 
In the meantime Ralph Lane, taking a Spanish frigate 
that they had captured, with a Spanish pilot, had made 
a successful venture with twenty of his men to " Roxo 
bay, on the southwest side of S. John," after a cargo of 



326 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

salt. He threw up entrenchments about a salt hut here, 
and quietly loaded the frigate while "two or three 
troupes of [Spanish] horsemen" stood off and "gave 
him the looking," but offered no resistance. When the 
fleet sailed from St. John most of the company were 
itching from the stings of swarms of "muskitos" which 
they had got on shore. 

That night at sea they took a Spanish frigate whose 
crew had abandoned her upon sight of the fleet. Early 
next morning another was captured: this a more profit- 
able prize, having a "good and riche freight and divers 
Spaniards of account in her." The Spaniards were 
afterward ransomed "for good round summes" and 
were landed at St. John. 

The next call was made at Hispaniola. Here there 
was much impressive exchange of courtesies between 
the Spaniards and their uninvited guests. The fleet 
anchored at Isabella on the first of June. Upon his 
arrival, apparently, the general entertained some local 
grandees on his ship. For on the third of June the 
"governor of Isabella and captaine of Port de Plata," 
having heard that there were "many brave and gallant 
gentlemen" in the fleet, sent a "gentle commendation" 
to Sir Richard with a promise shortly to make him an 
official call. On the appointed day the governor ap- 
peared at the landing off which the fleet lay, accom- 
panied by a "lustie Fryer" and twenty other Spaniards 
with their servants and Negroes. Thereupon Sir 
Richard and his chief men, "every man appointed and 
furnished in the best sort," — in briefer phrase, wearing 



"Virginia" 327 

his best clothes, — took the shipboats and were rowed 
forth in fine feather to meet them. The reception was 
most cordial on both sides. The Spanish governor 
received the English general "very courteously," while 
the Spanish gentlemen saluted the English gentlemen, 
and "their inferior sort did also salute our Souldiers 
and Sea men, liking our men and likewise their qual- 
ities. 

Then followed a sylvan banquet: "In the meane 
time while our English Generall and the Spanish 
Governour discussed betwixt them of divers matters, 
and of the state of the Countrey, the multitude of the 
Townes and people, and the commodities of the Hand, 
our men provided two banquetting houses covered with 
greene boughes, the one for the Gentlemen, the other 
for the servants, and a sumptuous banquet was brought 
in served by us all in plate, with the sound of trumpets, 
and consort of musicke, wherewith the Spaniards were 
delighted." The feast ended, the Spaniards in their 
turn, in recompense of the English courtesies, provided 
a bull fight, or hunt, for them. "They caused a great 
heard of white buls, and kyne to be brought together 
from the mountaines, and appoynted for every Gentle- 
man and Captaine that would ride, a horse ready 
sadled, and then singled out three of the best of them 
to be hunted by horsemen after their maner, so that the 
pastime grewe very pleasant for space of three houres, 
wherein all three of the beasts were killed, whereof one 
tooke the Sea and was slain with a musket." After this 
brutal sport rare presents were exchanged. The next day 



328 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

the thrifty Englishmen "played the Marchants in bar- 
gaining with them by way of trucke and exchange of 
divers of their commodities, as horses, mares, kine, 
buls, goates, swine, sheepe, bull-hides, sugar, ginger, 
pearle, tobacco, and such like commodities of the 
Hand." 

On the seventh of June they departed, with great 
good will, from these Spaniards and Hispaniola. "But," 
the diarist shrewdly observed, "the wiser sort doe im- 
pute this great shew of friendship and courtesie used 
towards us by the Spaniards rather to the force that wee 
were of, and the vigilancie and watchfulnesse that was 
amongst us, then [than] to any heartie good will or sure 
friendly intertainement: for doubtless if they had been 
stronger then wee, wee might have looked for no better 
courtesie at their handes then Master John Haukins 
received at Saint John de Ullua, or John Oxnam neere 
the streights of Dariene, and divers others of our 
Countreymen in other places." 

Resuming the voyage, short stops were made at some 
of the Bahama Islands, and on the twentieth of June 
they fell in with the mainland of Florida. On the 
twenty-third they were in great danger of wreck "on a 
beach called the Cape of Feare," so first named by 
these voyagers. The next day they came to anchor in 
a harbour where they caught "in one tyde so much fish 
as would have yeelded us twentie pounds in London." 
Here they made their first landing on the continent. 
Two days afterward they had arrived at Wocokon. 

In entering the shallow harbour three days later the 



"Virginia" 329 

flagship struck aground and, according to the diarist, 
"sunk," but she was not lost. On the third of July 
word of their arrival at Wocokon was sent by Manteo 
to king Wingina at Roanoke Island. And ultimately 
the company went up to Roanoke Island and began 
their settlement there. 

Grenville remained with them for about two months 
and then returned with the ships to England, promising 
to come back with supplies by the next Easter. The 
month was spent mostly in explorations of the neigh- 
bouring waters and country; while one harsh and ill- 
judged act was committed by Sir Richard's orders 
against the Indians, whom Amadas and Barlow had 
found so friendly and hospitable, which had evil results 
in fostering conspiracies against the new comers. The 
first exploration, with visits to Indian towns, was made 
in state soon after the arrival, and occupied eight days. 
Sir Richard, Master John Arundel, and "divers other 
gentlemen," led in the "tilt-boat"; Governor Lane, 
Captain Cavendish, Heriot, and twenty others, followed 
in the "new pinnace," which had been built at St. 
John; Captains Amadas and Clarke, with ten others, 
in one shipboat, and White, the artist, with Francis 
Broke in another. They crossed the southern part of 
Pamlico Sound to the mainland and discovered three 
Indian towns — Pomejok, Aquascogoc, and Secotan. 
On the next day Pomejok was visited; on the next, 
Aquascogoc, and two days after, Secotan, where they 
were well entertained. The next day was marked by 
the harsh act of large consequences. They had re- 



330 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

turned to Secotan and thence "one of our boates with 
the Admirall was sent to Aquasogok to demand a silver 
cup which one of the Savages had stolen from us, and 
not receiving it according to his promise, wee burnt and 
spoyled their corne, and Towne, all the people being 
fled." 

The fleet left Wocokon on the twenty-first of July for 
Hastorask, where they arrived and anchored on the 
twenty-seventh. Soon after, the courteous receiver of 
Amadas and Barlow on their first coming, King 
Wingina's brother Granganimeo, came aboard the flag- 
ship with Manteo, and paid his respects to Sir Richard. 

The colony being finally established at Roanoke 
Island, the ships weighed anchor on August the twenty- 
fifth and Grenville was off on his return to England. 
When less than a week at sea he came upon a fine 
Spanish ship of three hundred tons, and forthwith took 
her, with a rich cargo. In this performance a reckless 
show of bravery was made, Sir Richard boarding her 
"with a boate made with boards of chests, which fell 
asunder and sunke at the ship's side, assoone as ever 
he and his men were out of it." Afterward Sir Richard 
took charge of the prize and completed the voyage in 
her, arriving at Plymouth on the eighteenth of Septem- 
ber. As was natural with this plunder, he was "cour- 
teously received by divers of his worshipfull friends." 
The "Tiger," of which he had lost sight in foul weather 
on the tenth, had previously arrived at Falmouth. 

How fared the colony in "Virginia" after Sir Richard 
had left with the ships is told in Ralph Lane's report to 



" Virginia" 331 

Raleigh: "An account of the particularities of the im- 
ployments of the English men left in Virginia by Sir 
Richard Greenevill under the charge of Master Ralph 
Lane Generall of the same, from the 17 of August 1585 
until the 18 of June 1586 at which time they departed 
the Countrey: sent and directed to Sir Walter Ralegh." 
There were in all one hundred and eight men of the 
company remaining in the colony. They finished the 
building of a fort on Roanoke Island, which had ap- 
parently been begun before Grenville left; and set up 
their houses, presumably of logs, the best of these 
thatched with grasses. But their principal occupation 
was in exploration for discovery of the country about 
them. These expeditions were mainly by water and 
only in small boats, all the craft they had. One much 
used was a four-oared boat, which could carry not more 
than fifteen men with their trappings and provisions for 
seven days at the most. The largest apparently was the 
pinnace built at St. John, but she drew too deep water 
for the shallow sound about their settlement, and so 
could not be employed as readily as the smaller row- 
boats. Others were "wherries," perhaps shipboats. 
With these slender facilities the extent of their explora- 
tions was surprising. Their discoveries were extended 
from Roanoke Island south, north, northwest, and west 
for considerable distances. Southward the farthest 
point reached was "Secotan," or "Croatoan," in the 
present county of Carteret at the southern end of 
Pamlico Sound, which they estimated to be eighty 
miles from Roanoke Island. To the northward they 



332 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

went one hundred and thirty miles to the "Chesepians," 
so passing into the present Virginia. They penetrated 
into the Chesepian's territory some fifteen miles from 
the shore, nearly reaching the Chesapeake Bay, below 
Norfolk. Northwestward they travelled one hundred 
and thirty miles to "Chawanook," on the Chowan 
River, at a point just below the junction of the Meherrin 
and the Nottaway rivers. And westward they ascended 
the "River of Moratoc" — the Roanoke River — till they 
were distant one hundred and sixty miles from Roanoke 
Island. 

On the voyage up the Chowan, Lane learned from 
a native monarch, " Menatonon," king of the "province 
of Chawanook," whom he had prisoner with him for 
two days, and described as, "for a savage, a very grave 
and wise man," that by a canoe journey of three days, 
and overland four days to the northeast, he would come 
to a rich king's country which lay upon the sea, whose 
place of greatest strength was an island in a deep bay. 
This pointed to Chesapeake Bay and Craney Island, in 
Hampton Roads, at the mouth of the Elizabeth River. 
Lane had early become satisfied that Roanoke Island, 
with its poor harbour and the dangerous coast, was not 
the fittest place for a settlement; and having Menato- 
non's information he resolved "with himself" that, 
should the expected supplies from England come before 
the end of April, and with them more boats or more men 
to build boats in reasonable time, he would seek out 
this king's stronghold; and if the country were as rep- 
resented he would move the colony to that point. This 



"Virginia" 333 

project was thoroughly and judiciously planned, as 
appears in the outline of it that he gives in his report. 
He would have two expeditions starting from Roanoke 
Island. One should go out in a small bark and two 
pinnaces by sea northward to find the bay, sound 
the bar if there were any, and to ride in the bay about 
the island stronghold till the other should arrive. The 
other, led by himself, should comprise two hundred 
men, taking all the small boats he could have built, and 
should penetrate to the head of the "river of Chewa- 
nook" (the Chowan), and thence overland. He would 
have with him Indian guides whom Menatonon would 
provide: and that these guides would be selected from 
the best of Menatonon's men he was assured, for he had 
cleverly retained the king's "best beloved son," "Sky- 
ko," as his prisoner or hostage. He would, too, have 
this young brave keep company with him "in a hand- 
locke with the rest, foote by foote all the voyage over- 
land." 

Thus, if he had been enabled to prosecute this venture 
to the finish Lane would have found Chesapeake Bay 
and Craney Island, and removing his colony thence, 
would have anticipated the settlement at Jamestown by 
about twenty years. But the relief from England did not 
come as expected, and in April Lane had a formidable 
Indian conspiracy against the life of the colony to meet. 

King Wingina became an enemy of the colony and 
plotted to destroy it. His father, Ensenore, and his 
brother, Granganimeo, continued friendly, and stayed 
his hand for a while. But Granganimeo died not long 



334 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

after the arrival of the colony, and Ensenore died in 
April. Wingina, upon the death of Granganimeo, 
changed his name to "Pemisapan," and Pemisapan he 
is afterward called in Lane's report. The conspiracy 
was his conception, and was formed immediately upon 
Ensenore's death. Wanchese, the companion of Man- 
teo in the visit to England, was among the chief con- 
spirators. But Manteo remained the Englishmen's 
staunch and steadfast friend, and rendered them signal 
aid in times of their greatest perils. 

Wingina's cunning diplomacy was first exercised at 
the time of Lane's ascension of the Moratoc (Roanoke) 
River. This exploration Lane deemed of large import- 
ance, the natives having reported "strange things "of the 
head of that river, and told of a wondrous mine there- 
abouts, producing a "marvellous mineral," and a people 
skilled in refining ore. The river, they said, sprang in 
a violent stream out of a huge rock, which stood so near 
to the sea that in great storms the ocean's waves were so 
beaten into the river that its fresh water for a certain 
space grew salt and brackish. In the opinion of 
Master Hariot, which Lane quoted, the head, from the 
savages' description of the country, rose either "from 
the bay of Mexico or els from very neere unto the same, 
that openeth out into the South Sea [the Pacific]." The 
mine was of copper and famed for its richness among 
all the tribes of the region, those of the mainland as well 
as on the river's banks. Such abundant store of the 
metal had the tribe dwelling nearest to it — the "Man- 
goaks" — that they beautified their houses with large 



"Virginia" 335 

plates of it. These stories moved Lane to a great effort 
to attain this promising point, for, as he observed, with a 
touch of humor or of pessimism, in the light of previous 
western enterprises of his countrymen, "the discovery 
of a good mine, or the passage to the South Sea, or some 
other way to it, and nothing els can bring this Countrey 
in request to be inhabited by our nation." 

Accordingly he planned his largest expedition to this 
end, comprising some forty men with two "double 
wherries." The head of the river, he was told, was a 
thirty or forty days' canoe voyage above the principal 
Indian town on its banks, which had the same name 
as it — Moratoc. Therefore he purposed to go up stream 
as far as the quantity of provisions he could carry 
would supply his company, and then obtain fresh pro- 
visions from the Moratocs or from the Mangoaks 
farther up. The expedition started out in March. 
They had proceeded only three days on their voyage 
from Menatonon's dominions and had come to the 
Moratocs' country, when they found that all the people 
had withdrawn and taken their whole stock of corn with 
them into the interior. Not a single savage could be 
seen in any of the towns or villages, nor a grain of corn 
be found. The voyagers were now a hundred and 
sixty miles from "home" — Roanoke Island — and with 
only two days' victuals left. It was evident that they 
had been betrayed by some of their own Indians, and 
that the intent was to starve and so destroy them. 

And so it proved. This was Pemisapan's scheme. 
Lane had been obliged to take Pemisapan into his con- 



336* Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

fidence, because he depended upon him for a guide to 
the Mangoaks, and the wily savage had secretly given 
the tribes word of his coming, with the declaration that 
his real purpose was to kill them all off. On the other 
hand, he had told Lane that the tribes had such inten- 
tion toward the English, plotting their destruction, and 
had repeatedly urged him to go against them. He 
had told of a general assembly by Manatonon at Chawa- 
nook of all his "Weroances" and allies to the number 
of three thousand bows, to go against the English at 
Roanoke Island; and had declared that the Mangoaks, 
who were able to bring as many more fighting men to 
the enterprise, were in the same confederacy. And true 
it was that at that time this assembly was held at 
Chawanook, and the confederacy was formed, but this, 
as Menatonon afterward confessed to Lane, was "alto- 
gether and wholly procured by Pemisapan himselfe." 
He had fabricated the story of the Englishmen's hostile 
intention in passing up the river, notwithstanding that 
they had entered into a league of amity with repre- 
sentatives of both the Moratocs and the Mangoaks, and 
they had heretofore dealt kindly with each other. 

On the night of their arrival at the deserted villages, 
before placing his sentinels, Lane informed his company 
of the situation they were in, and of his belief that they 
had been betrayed and "drawen foorth upon a vaine 
hope to be in the ende starved," and he left it to be 
determined by the majority whether they should venture 
the spending of all their victuals in further voyaging 
onward with the hope of better luck above, or return. 



"Virginia" 337 

That the matter might not be acted upon hastily, he 
advised them to reserve their decision till the next 
morning. At that time they resolved almost unan- 
imously, "not three of the contrary opinion," that, 
"while there was one-half pint of corn for a man, they 
should not leave the search of that river." If the worst 
fell out they had two mastiffs with them, and they could 
make shift to live on a "pottage" of these dogs with 
sassafras leaves, for two days, which time, they then 
returning, would bring them down the current back to 
the entrance to the sound. They would patiently fast 
for two days, "rather than to draw back a foot till they 
had seen the Mangoaks either as friends or foes." 

So these plucky Englishmen kept on for two days 
more when their victuals were gone. Lying by the shore 
through the nights they saw nobody, but they perceived 
fires at intervals along the shore where they were to 
pass, and up into the country. On the afternoon of 
the second day they heard savages call from the shore, 
as they thought, "Manteo," who was then in the boat 
with Lane. At this they were all glad, hoping for a 
friendly conference. Manteo was bidden to answer. 
He did so, and presently the savages began a song. 
This the Englishmen took as in token of his welcome 
by them. But Manteo seized his piece, telling Lane that 
they meant to fight. No sooner had his words been 
spoken and the "light horsemen" made ready to be put 
on shore, than a volley of arrows lighted amongst the 
company. None, however, was hurt. Immediately 
the other boat lay ready with her shot to scour a place 



33$ Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

for the "hand weepons" to land. A landing was 
quickly accomplished, although the shore was high and 
steep. Then the savages fled. They were followed for 
a while till they had "wooded themselves," the pur- 
suers knew not where. That night was spent at this 
point, on guard. 

The next morning all agreed that further advance- 
ment was impossible, for there was no prospect of ob- 
taining victuals. The worst had now fallen out, and 
the party were obliged to resort to their "dogges por- 
redge." So before sunrise they began their return 
voyage. By nightfall of the next day they were within 
a few miles of the river's mouth. They had rowed in 
one day with the current as great a distance as they had 
made in four days up stream against the current. That 
night they lodged upon an island, where they had 
"nothing in the world to eat but pottage of sassafras 
leaves." They had next day to pass the broad sound 
with empty stomachs. That day the wind blew so 
strong and the billows rose so high that the passage 
could not then be made without danger of sinking their 
boats. That evening was Easter eve, "which was 
fasted most truely." Easter morning, however, opened 
calmly, so that they could proceed with safety. Late 
in the afternoon they arrived at Chypannum. The 
savages they had left here had all fled, but their weirs 
yielded them some fish, with which they thankfully 
broke their fast. The next morning they reached 
"home," at Roanoke. 

Their return astonished and dismayed Pemisapan 



''Virginia" 339 

and his allies. A "bruit" had been raised among the 
tribes that they had all been destroyed by the Chaonists 
and the Mangoaks,part of them slain and part starved. 
This had developed in Pemisapan and the hostile con- 
federates a contempt for the English. Instead of a 
"reverent opinion" that had formerly been shown to- 
ward the Englishmen's God, they had begun "flatly 
to say that our Lorde God was not God since he suffered 
us to sustaine much hunger and also to be killed." 
Pemisapan had further planned to starve out the rest of 
the colonists at Roanoke Island, and had now made 
ready to put this plan into execution. He proposed to 
take his savages off and leave his ground in the island 
unsown. This done, the English could not have been 
preserved from starvation. For at that time they had 
no fish weirs of their own, nor men skilled in making 
them; neither had they a grain of corn for seed. 

All was changed by Lane's safe return with the whole 
of his party, and by the reports of their adventures 
made to Pemisapan by three of his own savages whom 
Lane had had with him besides Manteo; also by the 
knowledge that Menatonon had been made prisoner, 
and his favourite son Skyko taken and brought to Roa- 
noke. "Old Ensenore" again became potent in 
Pemisapan's councils. He reasoned that the English 
were the servants of God and could not be destroyed 
by them. Contrariwise, that those savages that sought 
their destruction would find their own. That the Eng- 
lish "being dead men were able to doe them more hurt 
than now" they "could do being alive." It was an 



34° Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

opinion confidently held by the "wisest" among the 
tribes, as well by their old men, that at night when a 
hundred miles from any of the living English some of 
their people had been shot at in the air, and stricken by 
English men that had died among them from sickness. 
And many of them believed that the English were 
"dead men returned into the world againe, and that 
we doe not remaine dead but for a certaine time, and 
that then we returne againe." 

Ensenore's influence and such reasoning temporarily 
restored the Englishmen's power. But that which had 
the largest effect was an act of Menatonon's in bringing 
one of the kings to formal allegiance to the English 
queen and to Sir Walter Raleigh: 

"Within certaine dayes after my returne from the 
sayd journey [up the Roanoke] Menatonon sent a 
messenger to visite his sonne the prisoner with me, and 
sent me certaine pearle for a present, or rather, as 
Pemisapan tolde mee, for the ransome of his sonne, and 
therefore I refused them: but the greatest cause of his 
sending then, was to signifie unto mee that hee had 
commanded Okisko, King of Weopomiok, to yeelde 
himselfe servant, and homager to the great Weroanza 
of England, and after her to Sir Walter Ralegh: to 
perfourme which commandement received from Mena- 
tonon the sayd Okisko joyntly with this Menatonons 
messenger sent foure and twentie of his principallest 
men to Roanoke to Pemisapan, to signifie that they 
were ready to perfourme the same, and so had sent 
those his men to let me knowe that from that time for- 



"Virginia" 341 

warde, hee, and his successours were to acknowledge 
her Majestie their onely Soveraigne and next unto her 
as aforesaid." 

This done and acknowledged by them all in the pres- 
ence of Ensenore, and Pemisapan and his council, 
apparently quite changed Pemisapan's disposition. At 
all events he agreed with Ensenore that his people 
should set up weirs for the colonists, and sow his land. 
This was done, and by the end of April the Indians had 
sown sufficient land to produce a crop that would have 
kept the whole company for a year. The king also 
gave the colonists a plot of land for themselves to sow. 
These proceedings put them in "marvellous comfort," 
for if they could keep themselves till the opening of July, 
which was the beginning of the Indian harvest, they 
would then have, even though their expected new 
supplies from England had not then arrived, enough 
store of their own to sustain them. 

But Ensenore died within a few days after these 
promising arrangements, and now Pemisapan perfected 
his conspiracy. The plot was artfully contrived. First 
king Okisko of Weopomiok, who had so dramatically 
given his allegiance to the English queen, was to be 
moved through the agency of a "great quantitie of 
copper" to take a hand in it with the Mangoaks to 
the number of seven or eight hundred bows. They of 
Weopomiok were to be invited ostensibly to a "certaine 
kind of moneths mind," or ceremony which the savages 
were wont to hold in memory of a dead personage, in 
this case Ensenore. At the same time the Mangoaks and 



342 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

the Chespians with their allies, to the number of seven 
hundred, were to be assembled at "Dasamonguepeio" 
or Dasamonguepeuk — the mainland lying west of 
Roanoke Island. The clans here were to lie low in am- 
bush till signals were exchanged with the other forces, 
the signals to be fires, denoting the moment for action. 
Then Pemisapan and his fellows were to seize and exe- 
cute Lane and some of his principal men, while the 
Dasamonguepeuk bands were to cross to Roanoke and 
despatch the rest of the colony. It was expected that 
they would then be dismayed by hunger and scattered 
over the island and elsewhere, seeking crabs and fish 
for food. For it was to be agreed that from the time 
of the formation of the conspiracy no corn or other sup- 
plies should be sold the colony, and that the weirs which 
had been built for them should be robbed at night and 
broken up. By these means Pemisapan felt assured 
that Lane would be enforced for lack of sustenance at 
Roanoke to disband his people into sundry places to 
live upon shell fish as the savages themselves were ac- 
customed to do while their corn was growing. 

Lane and his chief men were to be despatched in this 
fashion. Two of Pemisapan's principal braves, "very 
lustie fellows," with twenty more, were charged with 
Lane's taking off. "In the dead time of the night they 
would have beset my house and put fire in the reedes 
that the same was covered with: meaning (as it was 
likely) that my selfe would have come running out of a 
sudden amazed in my shirt without armes, upon the 
instant whereof they would have knockt out my braines. 



"Virginia" 343 

The same order was given to certaine of his fellowes for 
M. Heriots: so for the rest of our better sort, all our 
houses at one instant being set on fire as afore is saide, 
and that as well for them of the fort as for us at the 
towne." It was arranged that the blow should be 
struck on the tenth of June. 

In the meantime Pemisapan continued an ostenta- 
tious show of friendship. But Lane was aware of his 
designs. He was kept informed by young Skyko, his 
prisoner, who was in the confidence of Pemisapan, the 
plotter believing that he was secretly the Englishmen's 
"enemy to the death." At one time he had attempted 
to escape, when Lane put him in the "bylboes" and 
threatened to cut off his head, but refrained from that 
drastic punishment at Pemisapan's earnest entreaty. 
So Pemisapan held him his true friend, for favours 
received. Afterward, however, he was well used by 
Lane, while the colonists generally made much of him, 
and he became attached to them. Lane accepted 
Pemisapan's show of friendship while the scheme was 
maturing, and bided his time to spring a trap on his 
savage enemies. 

While laying his plans Pemisapan went over to Dasa- 
monguepeuk for three causes. One was to see his 
grounds there broken up and sowed for a second crop; 
another to avoid Lane's daily calls upon him for the 
sale of victuals for the colonists, his stock of excuses 
apparently having become exhausted; the third, to 
despatch his messengers to Weopomiok and to the 
Mangoaks. King Okisko declined to be a party to 



344 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

the conspiracy and retired with his forces into the main- 
land. The others joined it. Lane relied on Mena- 
tonon and the Chaonists who since his last visit to them 
had given tokens of a desire to join in perfect league 
with the English. One expectation of Pemisapan's 
was realized. The shortage of food had become so 
serious that Lane was obliged to scatter the colonists. 
Captain Stafford with twenty men was sent to Croatoan, 
"My Lord Admirals Island," there to find food for them- 
selves, and also to watch for any shipping that might 
appear upon the coast, the expected relief fleet, or any 
other, and give warning of the approach. Master 
Pridiox and the "Provost Marshal," with ten others, 
were sent in the pinnace to Hastorask, there to live as 
best they could, and look for shipping. Sixteen or 
twenty of the rest of the colony were sent every week to 
the mainland "over against us," to live on "casada" and 
oysters. 

To put " suspicion out of his head " that his conspiracy 
was known, and to draw him on, Lane sent word to 
Pemisapan that he was presently to go to Croatoan, 
since he had heard of the arrival of his relief fleet from 
England (which he had not), and asking him to loan 
some of his men to fish for the colonists. Pemisapan 
made reply that he would come himself. But he de- 
ferred from day to day. At length on the last day of 
May his savages began to "make their assembly at 
Roanoak at his commandement sent abroad to them." 
Now Lane took the aggressive. 

" I resolved not to stay longer upon his comming over, 



"Virginia" 345 

since he meant to come with so good company, but 
thought good to go and visit him with such as I had, 
which I resolved to do the next day: but that night I 
meant by the way to give them in the Island a canvisado, 
and at the instant to seize upon all the canoas about 
the Island to keepe him from advertisements. But 
the towne tookethe alarme before I meantit to them: the 
occasion was this. I had sent the Master of the light 
horsman, with a few with him, to gather up all the 
canoas in the setting of the Sun, & to take as many as 
were going from us to Dasamonguepeio, but to suffer 
any that came from thence, to land. He met with a 
Canoa going from the shore, and overthrew the Canoa 
and cut off two Savages heads: this was not done so 
secretly but he was discovered from the shore; where- 
upon the cry arose: for in trueth they, privy to their 
owne villanous purposes against us, held as good espiall 
[spy] upon us, both by day and night, as we did upon 
them. The allarme given they tooke themselves to 
their bowes and we to our armes: some three or foure 
of them at the first were slaine with our shot: the rest 
fled into the woods. 

"The next morning with the light horsman & one 
Canoa taking 25 with the Colonel of the Chesepians,and 
the Sergeant major, I went to Dasamonguepeio: and 
being landed, sent Pemisapan word by one of his owne 
Savages that met me at the shore, that I was going to 
Croatoan, and meant to take him in the way to com- 
plaine unto him of Osocon who the night past was 
conveying away my prisoner, whom I had there present 



346 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

tied in a handlocke. Heereupon the king did abide 
my comming to him, and finding my selfe amidst seven 
or eight of his principall Weroances and followers, (not 
regarding any of the common sort) I gave the watch- 
word agreed upon (which was, Christ our victory) and 
immediately those his chiefe men and himselfe had by 
the mercy of God for our deliverance, that which they 
had purposed for us. [In other words they were slain.] 
The king himselfe being shot thorow by the Colonell 
with a pistoll, lying on the ground for dead, & I 
looking as watchfully for the saving of Manteos friends, 
as others were busie that none of the rest should escape, 
suddenly he started up and ran away as though he had 
not bene touched, insomuch as he overran all the 
company, being by the way shot thwart the buttocks by 
mine Irish boy with my petronell. In the end an 
Irish man serving me, one Nugent, and the deputy 
provost, undertooke him; and following him in the 
woods, overtooke him; and I in some doubt least we had 
lost both the king & my man by our owne negligence 
to have beene intercepted by the Savages, wee met him 
returning out of the woods with Pemisapans head in 
his hand." 

So ended Pemisapan's conspiracy. 

Seven days later word came to Lane at Roanoke from 
Captain Stafford at Croatoan that he had sighted a 
great fleet of three and twenty sail approaching the 
coast: but whether they were friends or foes he could 
not discern, and he advised the governor to "stand 
upon as good guard" as he could. They proved to be 



"Virginia" 347 

the fleet of Sir Francis Drake on his "prosperous" 
return from the sacking of St. Domingo, Cartagena, and 
St. Augustine. This spoiling of Spanish possessions 
accomplished, Sir Francis had turned from the direct 
homeward course to visit Sir Walter's colony and see 
how it fared with them. The next day Captain Stafford 
followed close upon his messenger, having travelled 
through the night before and that day twenty miles by 
land, and arrived at Roanoke with a letter from Sir 
Francis conveying a "most bountifull and honourable 
offer" to the governor. He would supply the colony 
with what necessities they required, — victuals, clothing, 
munitions, barks, pinnaces, and boats manned and 
provisioned. The following day the fleet appeared in 
the road of Roanoke's "bad harborow" and came there 
to anchor. And the next, Lane and Drake met on his 
flagship and exchanged greetings. 

Sir Francis renewed his offer, to which he said all the 
captains of his fleet had assented, and asked for details 
of the colony's needs. Thanking him and his captains 
with warmth for their generosity Lane craved the fol- 
lowing: That Drake would take with him to England 
a number of weak and unfit men of the colony, and in 
their places supply oarsmen, artificers, and others; 
that he would leave sufficient shipping and provisions 
to carry the colonists into August or later, when they 
might have to return to England; also some ships' 
masters, not only to convey them to England "when 
time should be," but to search the coast for some better 
harbour, if there were one; provide them a number of 



348 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

small boats; and supply them with "calievers, hand 
weapons, match and lead, tooles, apparell, and such 
like." All these desires Sir Francis stood ready cheer- 
fully to meet. At his request Lane sent to him the 
various officers of the colony with their lists of needs — 
the " Master of the Victuals," the "Keeper of the Store," 
the "Vice-treasurer." Drake forthwith turned over to 
Lane the "Francis" of his fleet, "a very proper bark of 
70 tun," and ordered her to be provisioned for an hun- 
dred men for four months. Also, two pinnaces and 
four small boats. And two of his masters, with their 
consent, were assigned to Lane's service till the time he 
had promised for their return to England. 

On the twelfth the bark was provisioned, the two 
loaned masters were aboard her, and several of Lane's 
best men, ready to pass from the fleet's anchorage to 
Roanoke Island. The very next morning an unwonted 
storm arose which scattered the fleet. The tempest 
raged through four days, and "had like to have driven 
all on shore if the Lord had not held his loving hand 
over them, and the Generall very providentially for- 
seene the worst himselfe." As it was, several of 
the fleet were driven to put to sea, while the " Francis," 
with her precious cargo, the two masters, and Lane's 
choice men, was seen to be free from the others and also 
"to put cleere to Sea." After the storm was over 
Drake came ashore and offered Lane another ship, pro- 
visioned as the "Francis" had been, and with another 
master. This was a large bark, the " Bonner," of one 
hundred and seventy tons, and Sir Francis said that she 



"Virginia" 349 

could not be brought into the harbour but must be left 
in the road. 

Thereupon Lane called his remaining chiefs into 
council, and the upshot of their deliberations, consider- 
ing the situation of the colony, — their reduced numbers, 
the carrying away of the "Francis" with her provisions 
and company, the hopelessness of the arrival of Sir 
Richard Grenville with the relief fleet now long over- 
due, — was the decision that Sir Francis's second offer, 
"though most honourable of his part," must be de- 
clined, and that he be petitioned in all their names to 
give the colony passage with him back to England. 
This request Lane personally delivered, and Drake 
promptly granted. Accordingly his pinnaces were sent 
to Roanoke to take off the men and their effects. But 
the weather was yet boisterous, and the pinnaces were 
so often aground that much valuable stuff was lost. 
"The most of all we had, with all our Cards [charts], 
Books, and writings were by the Sailers cast overboard, 
the greater number of the fleet being much aggrieved 
with their long and dangerous abode in that miserable 
road." 

The returning colonists were bestowed among the 
several ships, and on the nineteenth all set sail for home, 
where they duly arrived, at Portsmouth, on the twenty- 
seventh of July. 

Almost immediately after the colonists had abandoned 
Roanoke and sailed off with Drake, a ship sent out by 
Raleigh at his "sole charges" to their relief, arrived on 
the coast of Carolina. She had left England after 



35° Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

Easter, freighted plentifully with stores most necessary 
for the infant colony. When her captain found this 
"paradise of the world," as he termed their seat, de- 
serted, he returned with his cargo to England. Hakluyt 
gives the brief account of this voyage as third in the 
series of Raleigh's Virginia expeditions. A fortnight 
later Sir Richard Grenville's delayed relief fleet, com- 
prising three ships full laden with supplies of all sorts, 
at last arrived at the deserted place. In order to pre- 
serve possession of the country for England he left 
fifteen men (not fifty as some after chroniclers stated) at 
Roanoke Island, and then returned as he had come. 

While so much material was lost by the colonists in 
the hurry of departure, Thomas Hariot preserved notes 
from which he subsequently wrote out a particular and 
helpful description of the country of "Virginia," its 
inhabitants, productions, animals, birds, and fishes, 
which was first published in 1588 and Hakluyt repro- 
duced the next year; and John White brought home 
many sketches, drawings, and water colours, which 
subsequently appeared as illustrations of Hariot's book. 

Others of the colonists brought home specimens of the 
country's products, among them the tobacco plant and 
the potato root. Both were first introduced into general 
use in Europe by Raleigh. 



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XXI 

RALEIGH'S LOST COLONY 

UPON the return of his first colonists Raleigh at 
once bent his superb energies to the formation 
of his second or New Colony. The failure of 
the first colonists instead of dismaying inspirited him to 
larger effort. Lane's report and Hariot's account of 
the excellencies of the country moved him to plan his 
New Colony on a broader scale. He would now plant in 
"Virginia" a prosperous English agricultural state. 
The new colonists should include families, men, women, 
and children, and a regular government should be es- 
tablished at the outset. In accord with Lane's theory, 
Roanoke Island should be passed by and the New 
Colony be seated on Chesapeake Bay. 

To these ends Raleigh sagaciously determined to 
admit a number of investors to share in the privileges 
of his patent, and under date of January seventh, 1587, 
he executed an instrument granting a charter to thirty- 
two persons for the new settlement. These were 
divided into two classes. Nineteen, comprising one 
class, were gentlemen or merchants of London who 
were to venture their money in the enterprise; thirteen, 

' 351 



352 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

constituting the other class, were to venture their 
persons. The latter were to be known by the corporate 
name of "The Governour and Assistants of the Citie 
of Ralegh in Virginia," and were described as "late 
of London gentlemen." The former were styled 
"merchants of London and adventurers." They were 
to be "free of the corporation, company, and society 
... in the citie of Ralegh intended to be erected and 
builded," and were to adventure "divers and sundry 
sums of money, merchandises and shipping, munition, 
victual, and other commodities " into "Virginia." In 
consideration of their investment they were granted free 
trade in the new settlement and in any other settlement 
that Raleigh might make by future discovery in Amer- 
ica; and were exempted from all duties on their com- 
merce, rents, or subsidies. An appropriation was made 
to them of one hundred pounds, to be ventured in any 
way they should see fit, the profits to be applied in 
"Virginia" in "planting the Christian religion and ad- 
vancing the same," and for "the common utility and 
profit of the inhabitants thereof." In this indenture 
Raleigh as the grantor was styled " Chief governour of 
Assamocomoc, alias Wingandacoa alias Virginia." In 
the list of the nineteen investing "merchants" appears 
the name of Richard Hakluyt. At the head of the 
thirteen to be planters of the "citie of Ralegh" was 
John White, the artist and man-of-affairs of the "Old 
Colony," as governor; and among these was his son- 
in-law Ananias Dare, who became the father of Virginia 
Dare. 



Raleigh's Lost Colony 353 

The company brought together to plant this colony 
numbered one hundred and fifty persons, of whom 
seventeen were women and nine were "boys and chil- 
dren." They embarked on three ships in charge of 
Simon Ferdinando, and sailed from Portsmouth harbour 
on April the twenty-sixth, 1587. 

The narrative of the outward voyage Hakluyt first 
published under the title, "The fourth voyage made to 
Virginia with three ships in the yere 1587. Wherein 
was transported the second Colonic" The narrator 
early displayed a feeling of resentment against Ferdi- 
nando, which grew in warmth as the account proceeded; 
and this feeling seems to have been fully justified by 
the captain's conduct. He was a Spaniard by birth, 
and it has been conjectured that he was acting in the 
interest of Spain. Another explanation of his strange 
course is found in his differences with White on the 
voyage. He unquestionably lied on more than one 
occasion; ruthlessly abandoned one of the ships of the 
fleet at sea and "grieved" at her reappearance with her 
passengers at the end of the voyage; nearly wrecked his 
ship off" Cape Fear; and when Roanoke Island was 
reached refused to carry the colonists further, regardless 
of Raleigh's positive directions to deliver them at 
Chesapeake Bay, stopping at Roanoke only long enough 
to take on, if found, the fifteen men left there by Gren- 
ville. He is said to have been twice before on the coast 
of Carolina as a pilot. He was with Captains Amadas 
and Barlow on their reconnoitering expedition, and his 
second voyage may have been with Grenville's relief 



354 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

fleet. His name appeared among the twelve assistants 
to Governor White. 

The narrative begins with the crispness of a diary. 

"Our fleete being in number three saile, viz., the Ad- 
mirall [the "Lion"] a ship of one hundred and twentie 
Tunnes, a Flie boate, and a Pinnesse, departed the sixe 
and twentieth of April from Portesmouth, and the same 
day came to an ancher at the Cowes in the Isle of Wight, 
where wee stayed eight dayes. 

"The fift of May at nine of the clocke at night we 
came to Plimmouth, where we remained the space of 
two dayes. 

"The 8 we weyed anker at Plimmouth and departed 
thence for Virginia. 

"The 19 [June] we fell with Dominica, and the same 
evening we sayled betweene it and Guadalupe: 

"The 21 the Fly-boat also fell with Dominica. 

"The 22 we came to an anker at an Island called 
Santa Cruz, where all the planters were set on land, 
staying there till the 25 of the same moneth." 

At their first landing here a number of the company, 
men and women, ate freely of a "small fruit like green 
apples," which they found in abundance, and soon were 
"fearfully troubled" with a burning in their mouths, 
and swelling of their tongues "so bigge that some of 
them could not speake." The first night five great 
tortoise were caught, " some of them of such bignes that 
sixteene of our strongest men were tired with carying of 
one of them but from the seaside to our cabbins." 
They sought a fit watering place, but found only a 



Raleigh's Lost Colony 355 

"standing ponde," the water of which was so "evill" 
that many of the company fell sick from drinking it; 
while those who washed their faces with it in the morn- 
ing before the sun had drawn off the corruption, suffered 
a burning sensation, and their faces became so swollen 
that their eyes were closed and they could not see in 
"five or sixe dayes, or longer." 

The next stopping place was "Cottea," which was 
reached two days after leaving Santa Cruz, the pinnace 
arriving there before the admiral. Here they lay at 
anchor for a day and a night. Next they came to anchor 
at St. John's, in "Musketos Bay." 

At this place three days were spent taking in fresh 
water, and "unprofitable," since during their stay 
more "beere" was consumed than the "quantitie of the 
water came unto." When they weighed anchor and 
were off again, two Irishmen of the company — " Darbie 
Glaven and Denice Carrell" — were left behind. 

No more stops were permitted by Captain Ferdinando 
till they were off the coast of Florida. On the evening 
after the departure from Mosquito Bay they fell in 
with "Rosse Bay," where Ferdinando had promised 
they should take in salt. White appointed "thirty shot, 
tenne pikes, and ten targets" to man the pinnace to go 
to the shore for this purpose, and they were about to 
start out when Ferdinando demurred. He was not 
sure, he now said, that this was really the place where 
the salt was to be obtained. Besides, if the pinnace 
should go she could not come back without peril till 
the next night. Meanwhile should a storm arise the 



356 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

admiral would be in danger of being cast away. While 
thus arguing, as the narrator avers, he had craftily got 
the ship into shoal water, and suddenly "dissembling 
great danger" he cried to the helmsman, "Bear up 
hard! Bear up hard!" So she went off, and they were 
"disappointed of salt by his meanes." The next day, 
sailing along the west end of St. John, White desired 
to go ashore at "St. Germans Bay," to gather young 
plants of oranges, lemons, plantans, and pines to set out 
in "Virginia." These grew in plenty near the shore, as 
was well known to the governor and some of the other 
planters who had been with the first colony. But "our 
Simon" denied it, and refused to stop. He however 
promised to come to anchor at Hispaniola. There he 
would go ashore with the governor and other of the 
chief men, to see if he could speak with "his friend 
Alanson," — the Spanish governor of Hispaniola, — by 
whom he hoped to be furnished with cattle, and all 
such things as they could have taken at St. John. The 
next day, the third of July, they came to Hispaniola. 
All that day they bore with the coast, and the next, and 
till noon of the following, but no preparation was made 
to land. When they had passed the place where 
"friend Alanson" dwelt, the governor demanded of 
the captain whether he intended to keep his promise. 
Whereupon Ferdinando coolly declared that it was to 
no purpose to touch at Hispaniola, for he had been told 
by Sir Walter Raleigh, who had it from the French am- 
bassador, that the king of Spain had sent for Alanson to 
come to Spain: and Ferdinando really thought him dead. 



Raleigh's Lost Colony 357 

So the next day they sailed out of sight of Hispaniola, 
and "haled off for Virginia." Coming to the "Island 
Caycos" Ferdinando told of two good salt ponds here. 
Accordingly a landing was made, and the better part 
of a day spent in roaming about this isle: some of the 
company seeking the salt ponds which they did not 
find; others fowling; others hunting swans, "whereof 
we caught many." The next land sighted was the 
Carolina coast. On July sixteenth they fell with the 
"main of Virginia." Ferdinando took it to be the 
island of Croatoan, and came to anchor. But after 
riding here for two or three days he found out his mis- 
take. Then setting sail again he bore farther along the 
coast. The following night " had not Captaine Stafford 
bene more carefull in looking out than our Simon 
Ferdinando, we had bene all cast away upon the beach 
called the Cape of Feare, for we were come within two 
cables length of it: such was the carelesnes and igno- 
rance of our Master." 

On the twenty-second of July the ships were safe 
arrived at Hastorask. 

Immediately upon their arrival Governor White 
with forty of his best men went aboard the pinnace to 
pass up to Roanoke Island forthwith and seek the fifteen 
men left by Grenville. When they had been met, as 
he confidently expected they would be, and after a con- 
ference with them as to the state of affairs, he was to 
return, and the fleet were without further delay to sail 
up the coast to the Chesapeake Bay country. But as 
soon as the pinnace with his party had put off from the 



358 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

admiral Ferdinando caused one of his chief men to call 
out to her sailors not to bring the party back from 
Roanoke Island, but to leave them there, all except the 
governor, "and two or three such as he approved": 
for the summer was far spent, and therefore Ferdinando 
would "land the planters in no other place." Since it 
appeared that all the sailors both in the pinnace and on 
board the admiral were in agreement with Ferdinando's 
decision, it "booted not the governour to contend with 
them." Accordingly he proceeded to Roanoke and 
made preparations there for the temporary accommoda- 
tion at least of his colonists. 

The island was reached at sunset and White and his 
companions landed at the point where he understood 
that Grenville's fifteen men had established themselves. 
Not one was found. But the discovery of the bones of 
one of them led the searchers to fear that all had 
perished at the hands of the Indians. The next morn- 
ing White with several of his party walked up to the Old 
Colony's plantation at the north end of the island, hop- 
ing there to find some trace of the missing men. The 
place was deserted. The fort had been razed, and its 
site was overgrown with vines. The "decent dwelling 
houses" of the colony yet stood, but they were open to 
the weather, and, like the site of the fort, overgrown 
with vines, and within them deer were feeding. With 
this melancholic spectacle the governor's party re- 
turned "without hope of ever seeing any of the fifteene 
men living." 

Then the governor gave orders for the repairing of 



Raleigh's Lost Colony 359 

the houses on the deserted plantation and for the erec- 
tion of new cottages; and when this work was well 
under way the colonists were all brought up here. On 
the twenty-fifth the fly-boat appeared in the road off 
Roanoke with all her passengers safe, to the joy of their 
fellow planters and the grief of Ferdinando. For when 
he had "purposely left them in the Bay of Portugal, and 
stole away from them in the night," he had hoped that 
the master of the ship, Edward Spicer, "for that he had 
never bene in Virginia would hardly finde the place, or 
els being left in so dangerous a place as that was, by 
meanes of so many men of warre as at that time 
were abroad, they would surely be taken or slain." 
Such is the record, but let us cherish the hope 
that the chronicler misinterpreted Ferdinando's strange 
act, and that he was not guilty of so diabolical a 
scheme. 

On the twenty-eighth, when the new colonists were 
probably settling themselves at Roanoke, one of the as- 
sistants, George Howe, was set upon and slain by a little 
band of Indians who had come over to the island 
either to spy upon the new comers, or to hunt deer, 
or both. He was alone at the time, and some distance 
from the plantation, wading in the water catching crabs 
with a forked stick. He was only half dressed and 
had no weapon, his gun perhaps having been left on the 
shore. The savages stealthily approached him from a 
hiding place among tall reeds, where deer were often 
found asleep, and killed by the Indian hunters. They 
sprang at his back and gave him sixteen wounds with 



360 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

their arrows, finally beating him to death with their 
wooden swords. The deed done, they "fled over the 
water to the main." These savages belonged to the 
remnant of the dead Wingina's — or Pemisapan's — 
people, who were now dwelling on the mainland at 
Dasamonguepeuk. 

The quest for traces of the fifteen men was continued 
while the work of setting up the plantation was going 
forward. On the last day of July Master Stafford and 
twenty men started off with Manteo for the island of 
Croatoan, where Manteo's kindred dwelt, and where the 
Indians had been friendly with the Old Colony, hoping 
from them to get some definite news of the lost men. 
At the same time the new comers would renew "old 
friendships" and endeavour to ascertain the present 
attitude of the other tribes of the country, besides 
Pemisapan's broken band, toward the English. Upon 
their landing at Croatoan the natives appeared on their 
guard, but when Manteo showed himself and called to 
them in their own language, they threw down their 
bows and arrows and made hospitable demonstrations. 
When told that the Englishmen were come to renew the 
"old love" with assurances of their desire to live with 
them only as "brethren and friends" they were greatly 
pleased, and invited the visitors "to walke up to their 
Towne": which they did, and there were feasted. 
Then at a conference that followed, the fate of the 
fifteen men was revealed. They had been attacked by 
a band from Pemisapan's former confederates and 
driven from Roanoke Island, and all had disappeared, 



Raleigh's Lost Colony 361 

most of them killed, the others probably drowned. As 
the Croatoans told it the story thus ran. 

Eleven of the fifteen were at Roanoke when the attack 
was made: the remaining four were off in a creek 
gathering oysters. The attacking band, composed of 
thirty savages, crept to the island and hid themselves 
behind trees, which were thick near the houses where 
the Englishmen were living carelessly. Two of the 
band first approached the houses as if alone, and ap- 
parently unarmed, and with friendly signs called for 
two of the Englishmen to come out without their arms 
and speak with them. The Englishmen unsuspiciously 
acquiesced. When the four met and one of the Indians 
was embracing one of the Englishmen, the other Indian 
drew his wooden sword from beneath his mantle, and 
slew this Englishman. His companion fled toward the 
houses while the remainder of the band sprang from 
their hiding places and pursued him with a flight of 
arrows. The little body of Englishmen crowded into 
the house where all their weapons and their provisions 
were, and prepared for a stubborn defence. Presently, 
however, the savages set the house afire, and they were 
driven into the open with what weapons they could catch 
up. A skirmish followed and continued for above an 
hour, in which the Indians had the advantage through 
their nimbleness in dodging behind trees. At length 
the surviving Englishmen backed fighting to the water- 
side where their boat lay. Taking to the boat they fled 
toward Hastorask, on the way picking up the four who 
had been absent on the oyster trip. All landed on a 



362 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

small island near Hatteras. Here they were able to 
remain only for a little while. Their departure from 
this place was the last heard of them. It was supposed 
that in making their escape they were drowned. 

As to the disposition of the natives in the other towns 
nothing decisive was obtained. It was therefore agreed 
at this conference that the Croatoans should undertake 
to convey a message to those that had before come into 
Pemisapan's confederation, and bring back to Roanoke 
either their chief "governours" or their answer to 
the English governor within seven days. Those towns 
were to be told that if they would accept the friendship 
of the new colonists all past unfriendly dealings on both 
sides, the Indian and the English, would be forgiven and 
forgotten. All their business being despatched, Master 
Stafford and his party departed the same day and 
returned to Roanoke to await the outcome of these 
negotiations. 

When the seven days had passed and no tidings had 
come from the men of Croatoan on their mission of 
peace, the governor now determined to avenge the 
killing of George Howe and the driving off of Grenville's 
men by moving upon the remnant of Pemisapan's men 
at Dasamonguepeuk. So with Captain Stafford, and a 
force of twenty-four men, one of them Manteo as guide, 
he set out on this expedition at midnight of the eighth of 
August. The party crossed to the mainland and landed 
early the next morning, while it was yet dark, near the 
enemy's dwelling place. Silently passing through a 
stretch of woods they came to a point where they had the 



Raleigh's Lost Colony 363 

Indians' houses between them and the water. Then — 
"having espied their fire and some sitting about it, we 
presently set on them: the miserable soules herewith 
amazed, fled into a place of thicke reedes, growing fast 
by, where our men perceiving them, shot one of them 
through the bodie with a bullet; and therewith we 
entred the reedes, among which we hoped to acquite 
their evill doing towards us": when it was discovered 
that a sad mistake had been made. For "those Savages 
were our friends, and were come from Croatoan to 
gather the corne & fruit of that place, because they 
understood our enemies were fled immediately after they 
had slain George Howe, and for haste had left all their 
corne, Tobacco, and Pompions standing in such sort, 
that al had bene devoured of the birds, and Deere, if 
it had not bene gathered in time: but they had like to 
have payd deerely for it: for it was so darke, that they 
being naked, and their men and women apparelled all 
so like others, wee knew not but that they were all men: 
and if that one of them, a Wiroance's [chief man's] wife, 
had not had a child at her backe, shee had been slain 
in stead of a man; and as hap was another Savage knew 
master Stafford, and ran to him, calling him by his 
name, whereby he was saved." The Englishmen did 
what they could in reparation of their blunder. They 
gathered all the corn and other crops found ripe, leaving 
the rest unspoiled, and took the chief man's wife and 
child and others of the savages back to Roanoke with 
them. Although Manteo was grieved at this mishap 
to his own people, he imputed their harm to their own 



364 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

folly, saying to them that if their Wiroances had kept 
their promise and come to the governor and reported 
at the time appointed they had not suffered such mis- 
chance. 

A few days after the return from this expedition, — 
on the thirteenth of August, — the unique ceremony of 
christening the savage Manteo and investing him with 
the title of "Lord of Roanoke" was performed before 
the assembled colonists. This was done by order of 
Raleigh before the colonists left England, and was in 
reward of his faithful service. On the eighteenth was 
recorded the birth of a daughter "to Elenor, daughter 
to the Governour, and wife to Ananias Dare, one of the 
Assistants," and on the Sunday following, the christen- 
ing of the infant: "and because this child was the first 
Christian borne in Virginia, she was named Virginia." 
Afterward — the date is not given — a child was born to 
the wife of Dyonis Harvie: the second white child born 
in the colony. 

By about the third week in August the ships had un- 
laden the goods and victuals of the planters and begun 
to take in wood and fresh water, and the workmen had 
started newly to calk and trim them for the return 
voyage to England; while the planters were preparing 
their home letters and "tokens" to go back on them. 
They were ready to depart on the twenty-first, when 
a violent tempest broke from the northeast. The 
" Lion," then riding out of the harbour, was forced to 
cut her cables and put to sea. The planters feared that 
she had been cast away, the more so because at the time 



Raleigh's Lost Colony 365 

that the storm struck her the most and the best of her 
sailors were ashore. She, however, lay outside beating 
off and on for six days, and with clearing weather, on 
the morning of the twenty-seventh, she reappeared 
without the bar, and was riding beside the fly-boat, 
both again ready for the departure. 

In the meantime some controversies had arisen be- 
tween the governor and the assistants over the selection 
of two of their number to return with the ships as factors 
for the company to their associates in London. For 
none desired to go. After much persuading by the 
governor, Christopher Cooper agreed to be one of the 
two. But the next day, through the persuasions of 
"divers of his familiar friends," he changed his mind, 
and withdrew his acceptance. Thereupon the whole 
company with "one voice" requested the governor 
himself to go. He, it was argued, could better and 
sooner than any other obtain the supplies and neces- 
saries for the comfort and development of the colony. 
But he refused. He could not so soon return he de- 
clared, leaving behind so many whom he "partly had 
procured through his perswasions to leave their native 
countrey" and embark in this venture, without dis- 
credit. At his return in England some enemies of him- 
self and of the enterprise "would not spare to slander 
falsely both him and the action, by saying hee went to 
Virginia but politikely, and to no other end but to 
leade so many into a countrey in which hee never meant 
to stay himselfe, and there to leave them behind him." 
Besides, it had been agreed that the colony should 



366 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

presently remove fifty miles farther up into the main. 
If this should be done, and he being absent, his own 
stuff and goods might be spoiled, or pilfered in transpor- 
« tation, so that at his coming back he would be forced 
to provide himself of all such things again; and he had 
already had some proof of the insecurity of his property 
when once absent from the colony for only three days. 
Now stronger pressure was brought by his associates, 
and they agreed to give him their bond, " under all their 
handes and seales" for the safe preservation of all his 
things at his return to Virginia, so that if any were lost 
or spoiled such would be made good to him or his as- 
signs. Under this pressure and with the execution of 
the bond, he reluctantly reversed his decision, and made 
ready to go. 

Since Captain Ferdinando was now impatient to be 
off, the governor had only half a day's time to prepare 
for sailing. He left Roanoke on the morning of the 
twenty-seventh and at midnight boarded the fly-boat. 
The next morning both ships weighed anchor. 

Before he left the plantation White had agreed with 
the assistants that should the colony move from Roan- 
oke before his return they should carve on a tree trunk 
or other conspicuous post, the name of the place to 
which they had gone. 

Of his parting from his associates, or from his daugh- 
ter Eleanor and his little grandchild, nothing is said in 
the record. Nor of the wistful farewells as the ships 
sailed off for the home that the more than a hundred 
colonists left behind were never again to see. Here 



Raleigh's Lost Colony 367 

their story abruptly ends. How they lived after the 
ships had sailed away, and how they perished, or what 
was their fate, none can tell. With the departure of 
Governor White history closes the chapter. 

The return voyage was one of hardship and advent- 
ure. At the very start, at the weighing of their anchors, 
twelve of the fly-boat's men were thrown from the 
capstan and hurt, and for a time only five of her com- 
plement of fifteen men were able to do the ship's work. 
Nevertheless she kept company with the "Lion" for 
about twenty days. Then seeing that Ferdinando did 
not mean to make any haste for home, but was deter- 
mined to loiter along the way in the hope of taking 
Spanish prizes, she left the admiral and struck out on 
her own hook for England. Repeated storms were en- 
countered on the passage; through "foure dayes to- 
gether " her master could see " neither sunne nor starre " ; 
her fresh water gave out; several of her sailors sickened 
and two died. At length on the sixteenth of October 
she made the Irish coast and came to Smerwick. A 
few days after her arrival the boatswain, the steward, 
and the boatswain's mate died. Subsequently White 
took passage on another ship, sailing from Dingen for 
England, and landed at Cornwall on the fifth of Novem- 
ber. The fly-boat came up three days later to Hamp- 
ton. Here it was learned that the "Lion" had arrived 
three weeks before, at Portsmouth. Ferdinando had 
experienced hard luck. He and his company "were 
not onelv come home without any purchase [seizure] 



368 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

but also in such weaknesse by sicknesse and death of the 
chiefest men, that they were scarce able to bring their 
ship into harbour, but were forced to let fall their anker 
without which they could not wey againe, but might all 
have perished there if a small barke by great hap had 
not come to them to help them." 

White at his return found the whole kingdom in a 
turmoil over the threatened invasion by the "Invincible 
Armada" of Spain, — that "mightie" navy, "as never 
the like before that time had sailed the Ocean sea," 
comprising nearly one hundred and forty grand ships 
and thirty thousand fighting men, among them many 
grandees and gentlemen volunteers, — Philip of Spain's 
now open and bold stroke for the conquest of England, 
and her "reduction to his Catholic religion," in revenge 
for the "disgrace, contempt, and dishonour" which he 
had "endured of the English nation." Raleigh, Gren- 
ville, and Lane, the latter knighted after his return from 
America, were all members of the council of war that 
Elizabeth had hurriedly called together; while other 
friends of American colonization were engrossed in 
affairs of state. Scant attention, therefore, to the needs 
of the distant handful of colonists could be expected at 
this time of peril at home. Yet Raleigh was quick to 
act, and generously, in their behalf. In the thick of his 
activities for England's defence, he found leisure to fit out, 
again at his own charges, a small fleet to be despatched 
at the earliest moment with supplies and probably a few 
new colonists. Grenville was to take charge as com- 
mander of this expedition, and White, of course, was 



Raleigh's Lost Colony 369 

to return with him. But before the ships were ready to 
sail all of them were impressed by the government, and 
Sir Richard was required to attend Sir Walter in Corn- 
wall and train troops there. Not long after another 
attempt was made. White, with Raleigh's aid, suc- 
ceeded in obtaining two barks, and with these he sailed 
on the twenty-second of April, 1588, bound for Virginia. 
But their men were more anxious to fight the Spaniards 
than to hasten to the colony. In an encounter at sea 
with Spanish ships they were worsted and were obliged 
to limp back ingloriously to England. So this intended 
voyage was abandoned. 

Nothing more was done or well could be done under 
the condition of affairs for nearly two years. In July 
and August, 1588, the "Invincible Armada" was de- 
feated and dispersed. While with Howard, the lord 
high admiral, Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher bore ofF 
the larger glory for this signal achievement, Raleigh 
shared in all the dangers of the protracted sea fight. 
But with the return of comparative tranquility he found 
himself too much reduced in means to prosecute his 
colonial projects to the extent of his desires. He 
had expended in his various ventures upward of forty 
thousand pounds for which he had received no return. 
Still he continued undaunted to do what he could to 
accomplish his ends. With his assistance in March, 
1590, an opportunity opening, White made another 
effort to get to the colony, and this time succeeded in 
reaching "Virginia." 

The opportunity was furnished by an enterprise of 



370 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

John Watts, a London merchant. Watts had a fleet 
of three ships at Plymouth in readiness to sail ostensibly 
for a trading voyage to the West Indies, when they were 
held up by a general order of government prohibiting 
any vessel from leaving England. White hearing of 
this sought Sir Walter and proposed that he should use 
his influence to obtain a license for these ships to proceed 
on their intended voyage, upon the condition that they 
should transport White and a few other passengers with 
their belongings, together with a quantity of provisions, 
and land them at Virginia. Thereby, White urged, the 
"people of Virginia [if it were God's pleasure] might 
speedily be comforted and relieved without further 
charges unto him." Raleigh readily obtained the desired 
license, the ships' owner to be bound to him or his as- 
signs in three thousand pounds, to carry out the agree- 
ment. But, as White afterward wrote to Richard 
Hakluyt, the bond was not taken according to the terms. 
No passengers were permitted to embark or any goods 
to be shipped, except White alone with his chest. He 
was not even allowed "so much as a boy" for his per- 
sonal service. This "crosse and unkind dealing" much 
"discontented" him; but the fleet being all ready to 
sail when he went aboard there was no time to make 
complaint to Raleigh. It was apparent that the 
"governours, masters, and sailors" of the enterprise, 
"regarding very smally the good of their countreymen 
in Virginia, determined nothing less [no more] than to 
touch at those places, but wholly disposed themselves 
to seek after purchase and spoiles." 



Raleigh's Lost Colony 371 

The story of this quest, White's last one, is White's 
own "true discourse" written for Hakluyt, and pre- 
sented with this title: "The fift voyage of M. John 
White into the West Indies and parts of America called 
Virginia, in the yeere 1590." 

At the start from Plymouth the fleet comprised the 
" Hopewell," the " John Evangelist," the "Little John," 
and two small shallops. They sailed on the twentieth 
of March, and so much time was lost on the outward 
voyage, largely in chasing and taking prizes, that the 
Carolina coast was not reached till the beginning of 
August. Along the way they were joined by Captain 
Edward Spicer, with a pinnace, whom they had left in 
England. 

They came first upon this coast in a storm, and on 
the third of August were off low sandy islands west of 
Wocokon. But the weather was so foul that they 
were forced to put to sea again, and there remain for 
six days, till the storm had abated. Then they came 
up to these islands and a landing was made on one of 
them, where they took in fresh water and caught a great 
quantity of fish. On the morning of the twelfth they 
sailed for the island of Croatoan, and at night came to 
anchor at its northeast end. On the fifteenth they were 
at Hastorask. On their first coming to anchor here they 
saw a "great smoke" rising from Roanoke Island, which 
put them, especially White, in "good hope" that the 
colony were there, still expecting his return from Eng- 
land. Bright and early next morning the impatient and 
expectant governor set out for Roanoke: 



372 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

"Our 2 boates went ashore & Captaine Cooke & 
Cap. Spicer & their company with me, with intent to 
passe to the place at Roanoak where our countreymen 
were left. 

"At our putting from the ship we commanded our 
Master gunner to make readie 2 Minions and a Falkon 
well loden, and to shoot them off with reasonable space 
betweene every shot, to the ende that their reportes 
might bee heard to the place where wee hoped to finde 
some of our people. This was accordingly performed, 
& our twoe boats put off unto the shore: in the ad- 
mirals boat we sounded all the way and found from our 
shippe untill we came within a mile of the shore, nine, 
eight, and seven fadome: but before we were halfe way 
betweene our ships and the shore we saw another great 
smoke to the Southwest of Kindrikers mountes [as- 
sumed to be sand hills near the present Nags Head, the 
highest on this coast]: we therefore thought good to go 
to that second smoke first: but it was much further from 
the harbour where we landed than we supposed it to be, 
so that we were very sore tired before wee came to the 
smoke. 

" But that which grieved us more was that when we 
came to the smoke we found no man nor signe that any 
had bene there lately, nor yet any fresh water in all this 
way to drinke. Being thus wearied with this journey 
we returned to the harbour where we left our boates, 
who in our absence had brought their cask a shore for 
fresh water: so we deferred our going to Roanoak untill 
the next morning, and caused some of those saylers to 



Raleigh's Lost Colony 373 

digge in those sandie hills for fresh water whereof we 
found very sufficient. That night wee returned aboord 
with our boates and our whole company in safety." 

A fresh start was made on the following day as agreed, 
but under less favourable conditions, and a tragic hap- 
pening almost at the outset much distressed this ex- 
pedition: 

"The next morning being the 17 of August our boates 
and company were prepared againe to goe up to Roan- 
oak, but Captaine Spicer had then sent his boat a 
shore for fresh water by meanes whereof it was ten of 
the clocke aforenoone before we put from our ships 
which were then come to an anker within two miles of 
the shore. The Admirals boat [in which was White] 
was halfe wey toward the shore when Captaine Spicer 
put off from his ship. The Admirals boat first passed 
the breach, but not without some danger of sinking, for 
we had a sea brake into our boat which filled us halfe 
full of water, but by the will of God and carefull styrage 
of Captaine Cooke we came safe ashore, saving only 
that our furniture, victuals, match and powder were 
much wet and spoyled. For at this time the winde blew 
at Northeast and direct into the harbour so great a gale, 
that the Sea brake extremely on the barre, and the tide 
went very forcibly at the entrance. By the time that 
our Admirals boate was hailed ashore, and most of the 
things taken out to dry, Captaine Spicer came to the 
entrance of the breach with his mast standing up, and 
was halfe passed over, but by the rash and indiscreet 
styrage of Ralph Skinner his Masters mate, a very 



374 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

dangerous sea brake into their boate and overset them 
quite: the men kept the boat, some in it, and some hang- 
ing on it, but the next sea set the boat on ground, where 
it beat so that some of them were forced to let goe their 
hold, hoping to wade ashore; but the Sea still beat them 
downe, so that they could neither stand nor swimme, 
and the boat twise or thrise was turned the keel up- 
ward, whereon Captaine Spicer and Skinner hung untill 
they sunke & were seene no more. But foure that 
could swimme a little kept themselves in deeper water 
and were saved by Captaine Cookes meanes, who so soon 
as he saw them oversetting stripped himselfe, and foure 
other that could swimme very well, & with all haste 
possible rowed unto them & saved foure. They were 
II in all, & 7 of the chiefest men were drowned." 

This mishap so disturbed the sailors in White's boat 
that they were " all of one mind not to goe any further 
to seeke the planters." But through the persuasions 
and commands of White and Captain Cooke they re- 
covered courage, and set to work refitting both boats. 
Then the remaining company, nineteen in all, put off 
once more. Before Roanoke Island was reached night 
had fallen, and in the darkness they overshot the place 
of plantation by a quarter of a mile. Toward the north 
end of the island they saw the light of a great fire through 
the woods, and in its direction they presently rowed. 
When they had come directly over against it they let 
fall their grapnel near the shore and sounded a trumpet 
call. This bringing no response they gave some famil- 
iar English tunes, then sang some English songs, and 



Raleigh's Lost Colony 375 

"called to them friendly." Still there came no answer, 
and the hope that the colonists were here died out within 
them. At daybreak they landed, and coming to the 
fire they found grass and rotten trees burning, but no 
human beings about the place. Then they tramped 
through the woods to that part of the island over against 
Dasamonguepeuk, and thence returned by the water 
side round about the north point till they had reached 
the place where White had left the colony: 

" In all this way we saw in the sand the print of the 
Salvages feet of 2 or 3 sorts troaden ye night, and as we 
entred up the sandy banke, upon a tree, in the very 
brow thereof were curiously carved these faire Roman 
letters 

CRO 

which letters presently we knew to signifie the place 
where I should find the planters seated according to a 
secret token agreed upon betweene them & me at my 
last departure from them, which was, that in any ways 
they should not faile to carve on the trees or posts of 
the dores [of their houses] the name of the place where 
they should be seated: for at my coming away they 
were prepared to remove from Roanoak 50 miles into 
the main. Therefore at my departure from them in 
An 1587 I willed them, that if they should happen to be 
distressed in any of those places, that then they should 
carve over the letters or name a Crosse in this forme ►J'? 
but we found no such signe of distresse. 

"And having well considered of this, we passed to- 



376 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

ward the place where they were left in sundry houses, 
but we found the houses taken downe, and the place 
very strongly enclosed with a high palisado of great 
trees, with cortynes and flankers very Fort-like, and one 
of the chiefe trees or postes on the right side of the 
entrance had the barke taken off, and 5 foote from the 
ground in fayre Capitall letters were graven 

CROATOAN 

without any crosse or signe of distresse: this done we 
entred into the palisado, where we found many barres of 
Iron, too pigges of Lead, foure yron fowlers, Iron 
sacker-shotte, and such like heavie things, throwen here 
and there, almost overgrowen with grasse and weedes. 

"From thence wee went along by the water side to- 
wards the pointe or Creeke to see if we could find any 
of their botes or Pinnisse, but we could perceive no 
signe of them, nor any of the last Falkons and small 
Ordinance which were left with them at my departure 
from them. At our returne from the Creeke, some of 
our Saylers meeting us, tolde us that they had found 
where divers chests had bene hidden and long sithence 
[since] digged up againe and broken up, and much of the 
goods in them spoyled and scattered about, but nothing 
left, of such things as the Savages knew any use of, 
undefaced. 

"Presently Captaine Cooke and I went to the place, 
which was in the ende of an olde trench, made two 
yeeres past by Captaine Amadas: wheere wee found five 



3Sil!Sit!f 






■i : : rfSllAr 







^WlifH 1 ^ 



Raleigh's Lost Colony 377 

Chests, that had bene carefully hidden of the Planters, 
and of the same chests three were my owne, and about 
the place many of my things spoyled and broken, and 
my bookes torne from the covers, the frames of some of 
my pictures and Mappes rotten and spoyled with rayne, 
and my armour almost eaten through with rust; this 
could bee no other than the deede of the Savages our 
enemies at Dasamonguepeuk, who had watched the 
departure of our men to Croatoan [the island, not the 
main land so named, at Dasamonguepeuk, as on early 
maps]: and assoone as they were departed, digged up 
every place where they suspected anything to be buried: 
but although it much grieved me to see such spoyle of 
my goods, yet on the other side I greatly joyed that I 
had safely found a certaine token of their safe being at 
Croatoan, which is the place where Manteo was borne, 
and the Savages of the Hand our friends." 

With these findings, the day being near spent, the 
party returned to their boats and made off for the ships 
as fast as possible for a stormy night threatened. They 
reached the ships in the evening and got aboard with 
"much danger and labour," for the storm had now 
fallen with high wind and a heavy sea. 

The next morning the ships were made ready im- 
mediately to sail for the island of Croatoan, the wind 
being good for that place, all hands fully expecting to 
come upon the colony there. But in hoisting the ad- 
miral's anchor the cable broke, and the anchor was lost: 
whereupon the ship was driven so fast shoreward that 
she was forced to let fall another anchor, and this 



378 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

"came so fast home" that she barely escaped running 
ashore by "Kendricks mounts." She fortunately got 
clear again but not without some injury. She now had 
but one cable, and but one anchor left of her equipment 
of four. Meanwhile the weather was becoming "fouler 
and fouler." Under these conditions, and in view of 
their diminishing stock of victuals, together with the 
loss of a cask of fresh water that they had been obliged 
to leave on shore, it was decided that the visit of Croa- 
toan must be given up for this time, and that, instead, 
the ships must at once make for Saint John or some 
other island to the southward for fresh water and new 
supplies. It was further proposed that the ships should 
winter in the West Indies, with the hope of making 
"two riche voyages of one": and Captain Cooke of the 
admiral, at White's earnest plea, agreed that they 
should then return to "Virginia" and again seek the 
colony at Croatoan. 

But to this proposal the captain of one of the ships 
objected on the ground that his vessel was too weak and 
leaky to attempt to continue so long a voyage. Accord- 
ingly that night they parted company, this consort 
heading direct for England, and the admiral setting her 
course for Trinidad. So the Carolina coast w?s for- 
saken, and no return was made. After various advent- 
ures the admiral ultimately reached home with White 
heartbroken at his failure to reach his people, to whom 
he believed he had been so near. 

The "evils and unfortunate events" attending this 
expedition, "as well to their owne losse as to the hind- 



Raleigh's Lost Colony 379 

ranee of the planters of Virginia," he wrote Richard 
Hakluyt, "had not chanced if the order set downe by 
Sir Walter Ralegh had bene observed, or if my dayly & 
continuall petitions for the performance of the same 
might have taken any place." And "thus," he sor- 
rowfully concludes, "you may plainely perceive the 
successe of my fift & last voiage to Virginia, which was 
no lesse unfortunately ended than frowardly begun, and 
as lucklesse to many as sinister to my self. But I would 
to God it had bene as prosperous to all, as noysome to 
the planters, & as joyfull to me as discomfortable to 
them. Yet seeing it is not my first crossed voyage, I 
remaine contented. And wanting my wishes, I leave 
off from prosecuting that whereunto I would to God 
my wealth were answerable to my will." With this 
letter, written " from my house at Newtowne in Kylmore 
the 4 of February 1593," White took leave of the matter, 
committing "the planters in Virginia to the merciful 
help of the Almighty." He could do no more. From 
this time he seems to have remained in retirement in 
Ireland till the close of his life. 

Of the fate of the Lost Colony conjectures of histori- 
ans have been various. That they did actually replant 
themselves on the then existing "island of Croatoan," 
presumed to have been some part of the banks lying 
between Capes Lookout and Hatteras, and in the pres- 
ent county of Carteret, is accepted as fairly proved by 
White's finding of the inscription on the "chiefe tree" 
of the palisado at Roanoke. No further clue to the 
mystery of their passing is to be found, unless it be in 



380 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

this statement made a century and a quarter afterward 
by an early historian of Carolina (Lawson, 1714): 
"The Hatteras Indians who lived in Roanoke Island, 
or much frequented it, tell us that several of their 
ancestors were white people who could talk in a book 
as we do." 

Perhaps a remnant that survived massacre, misery, 
or homesickness were, as this statement implies, and 
the later Carolina historian, Hawkes, assumed, gradu- 
ally incorporated with these friendly Indians and faded 
from civilization into the savage life. 



XXII 

JAMESTOWN 

WITH unquenchable hopefulness Raleigh con- 
tinued his quest for the Lost Colony to the 
close of Elizabeth's reign, and abandoned it 
only when forced to do so by the attainder of James 
stripping him of his rights and liberty. By Elizabeth's 
last year he had fitted out at his own charges five several 
expeditions solely for this purpose. While during this 
period, 1589-1603, his marvellous energies had been 
directed in many channels, he had remitted no efforts 
for the succour of his colonists. While performing many 
parts, — courtier, captain of the queen's guard, states- 
man, member of parliament, mariner, sea-fighter, ex- 
plorer, gold seeker, — and with varying fortunes, now 
falling under the queen's displeasure, imprisoned in the 
Tower of London, again restored to her favour, en- 
gaged in dazzling adventure, American colonization was 
ever paramount in his thoughts. 

And how crowded with extraordinary activities by 
this most versatile of the Elizabethan men these years 
were, the record of his greater achievements, mostly 
chronicled in the Principal Navigations, shows. What 

381 



382 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

he had done up to the time of White's abandonment of 
the search for the Lost Colony in 1590 we have seen. 
In 1 59 1 he was the organizer of a fleet for service against 
Spain's American possessions, and was appointed second 
in command under Lord Thomas Howard. But the 
queen refusing to let him go out, his cousin Sir Richard 
Grenville was appointed in his place; and with this ex- 
pedition Sir Richard's career closed, he being wounded 
to death when ofF the Azores, the last of August, in one 
of the most stubborn and desperate sea-fights of naval 
history. The next year, 1592, Raleigh promoted the 
privateering expedition under Frobisher and Burroughs 
which captured, among other prizes in the West Indies, 
the "Madre de Dios," greatest of the Spanish treasure- 
ships then afloat. It was in this year, in July, that he 
was disgraced and sent to the Tower, but in October, 
when the privateers had returned with their rich prize, 
the queen, who had the largest share in this privateering 
venture, released him, since he alone could superintend 
the division of the plunder. In 1593 he matured a plan 
for a voyage to the "Empire of Guiana" and the fabled 
"El Dorado," the "citie of gold," in the unexplored 
northwestern part of South America, of which the 
natives had told Spanish travellers, with mines far ex- 
celling those of Peru. In 1594, in accordance with this 
plan, he sent out a preliminary expedition, under an 
experienced navigator, Captain Jacob Whiddon, to 
explore the coast contiguous to the great River Orinoco, 
and also the river with its tributaries, above which " El 
Dorado," or "Manoa" as called by the Indians, was 



Jamestown 383 

supposed to lie. In 1595 he sailed himself for Guiana 
at the head of a fleet of five ships and a company of one 
hundred officers, soldiers, and gentlemen adventurers. 
By a perilous voyage in small boats he succeeded in 
penetrating the Orinoco far up to the mouth of the 
Caroni, and the latter river to impassable falls, yet two 
hundred miles short, as it was reckoned, of the "citie 
of gold." Upon his return to England in the summer, 
with some specimens of ore which he had picked up 
along the way, and the son of a local king as a pledge 
of friendship against his next coming, he prepared, 
maybe with Hakluyt's assistance, a glowing account of 
this voyage, embellished with the tales that had been 
told him of the wonders of the region besides its rich- 
ness in mines: among them, the "Amazons," a warlike 
race of great women, and the "Ewaipanoma," a head- 
less nation, whose eyes were in their shoulders and their 
mouths in the middle of their breasts, and who wore "a 
long train of hair growing backward between the 
shoulders." And when this story was printed, under the 
inviting title, "The Discouerie of the large, rich, and 
beautifull Empire of Guiana, with a relation of the 
great and golden citie of Manoa, which the Spaniards 
call El Dorado," it was eagerly read and heightened his 
reputation. In 1596 he sent out Captain Laurence 
Keymis, a companion of his first voyage, with two well- 
equipped ships to renew the exploration of the Orinoco, 
especially with a view to planting an English colony in 
the region. Keymis returned in June with a report 
that confirmed Raleigh's belief in its great mineral 



384 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

wealth. But at this juncture Raleigh was engrossed in 
a venture nearer home for checkmating Spain's move 
of a second "Armada" against England. He was now 
united with Howard and the Earl of Essex in command 
of a fleet to attack Cadiz. With the ship "Warspite" 
he led the van in the great fight of June twenty-one 
which resulted in the destruction of the fleet intended 
for the descent upon England, and the capture of the 
city. Later, the same year, he despatched one of the 
smaller ships that had been in the Cadiz fight to 
Guiana, but this voyage had no important result. In 
1597 he sailed as second in command with Essex in 
an expedition to strike another blow against Spain, 
and this was effectively done with the capture of Fayal. 
In 1598 his scheme of colonization in the fertile valley 
of the Orinoco had developed, and he planned to send 
out a colony. But for some reason not known the 
enterprise was abandoned. In 1600 he added to his 
several offices that of Governor of Jersey. In 1602 he 
despatched his fifth expedition for the relief of the 
"Virginia" colony. 

This expedition was put in charge of Captain Samuel 
Mace, an excellent mariner, who had already made 
two voyages to "Virginia." He returned unsuccessful 
and Raleigh planned to send him out again. Raleigh 
could not, however, do any more at his personal cost 
alone. He had now exhausted his own means in the 
undertaking which, as Hakluyt wrote, "required a 
prince's purse to have it thoroughly followed out." 
He had renewed his endeavours to bring the privy 



Jamestown 385 

council into his scheme, but without success. Eliza- 
beth's end was approaching and her ministers were busy 
with their personal affairs, manoeuvring for their own 
advancement with her successor on the throne. Not- 
withstanding his failure to find support his splendid 
hope for his "Virginia" was not crushed. On the eve of 
his own downfall, which came swift upon the accession 
of James, he had written, " I shall yet live to see it an 
English Nation." This faith he carried with him to the 
Tower of London, into which James thrust him in De- 
cember, 1603, under sentence of death on a trumped-up 
charge of treason; and while in durance here he saw 
his cherished hopes realized through Richard Hakluyt's 
efforts. 

In 1605 Hakluyt brought his arguments to bear upon 
various men of condition, friendly to colonization, to 
induce them to join in a petition for patents for the 
establishment of two plantations on the coast of North 
America. The issue of this petition was James's 
charter bearing date of April tenth, 1606, by which the 
two companies, subsequently designated the London 
and the Plymouth Companies, were created, between 
whom were divided in nearly equal parts the vast 
territory then known as Virginia, stretching from Cape 
Fear to Halifax, and back a hundred miles inland: 
the company occupying the southern part to be called 
the " First Colony of Virginia " and that occupying the 
northern part, the "Second Colony of Virginia." 

Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard 
Hakluyt, and Edward Maria Wingfield, as patentees, 



386 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery- 
were the chief adventurers in the London or South 
Virginia Company. Ten of the nineteen adventurers 
styled merchants, remaining in England, at the estab- 
lishment of the corporation of "The Governour and 
Assistants of the Citie of Ralegh in Virginia" became 
subscribers to the South Virginia Company. Sir 
Thomas Smith, chief among the nineteen merchants, 
was made their first treasurer. Just a year after the 
issue of the patent their "First Colony of Virginia," 
sailing from England in December, 1606, arrived out 
at Chesapeake Bay, the region which Ralph Lane had 
determined as the fitter place than Roanoke for settle- 
ment, and in which Raleigh had directed White with 
the Second — the Lost — Colony to plant, as they would 
have done had Captain Ferdinando been true to them. 
And in May, 1607, the permanent settlement here was 
at last begun as Jamestown. 

Raleigh was condemned to be executed on the 
eleventh of December, 1603, but the day before he was 
reprieved, and he was held a prisoner in the Tower, with 
this unjust sentence hanging over his head, for thirteen 
dismal years. During this cruel imprisonment his 
great talents were occupied in philosophic and literary 
work, and he wrote out his notable Historie of the World. 
Meanwhile his statesmanlike interest in the developing 
American colony continued constant and keen. At 
one time he sought release for a visit to Virginia, prom- 
ising to bring the king rich returns therefrom. At 
length, in 16 16, James liberated him for the purpose of 



Jamestown 387 

making another expedition to Guiana upon his pledge 
to find the fabulous gold mine or else bear all the ex- 
penses of the undertaking. Thus at liberty, while 
making his preparations for this voyage, he was enabled 
to see Pocahontas from Virginia, who was in England 
that year. He sailed on his forlorn hope in June, 16 17, 
with a fleet of fourteen ships and four hundred men, ac- 
companied by his son Walter, and his faithful friend 
Captain Keymis. The expedition was a tragic failure, 
for his plans were betrayed to the court at Madrid, 
through the Spanish ambassador, under whose influence 
James had fallen, and immediate steps were taken to 
thwart them. The fleet were attacked by the Spaniards 
at a new Spanish settlement on the Orinoco, and in the 
fight that ensued young Raleigh was killed. Sir Walter 
himself had been detained at Trinidad, sick with a 
violent fever, and when the report of this disaster with 
the loss of his beloved son was brought to him, his stout 
heart was broken. Upon his return to England he was 
rearrested at the representation of the Spanish ambas- 
sador, on a charge of breaking the peace with Spain. 
Again he was thrust into the Tower. Trial was denied 
him, and the truculent James, at the behest of the king 
of Spain, now ordered his execution, finding a legal 
cover for this judicial murder in the original sentence 
of 1603. He was brought before the Court of King's 
Bench on the twenty-eighth of October, 16 18, and the 
next morning was beheaded on Tower Hill, meeting 
death with great fortitude. "Prythie, let me see the 
axe, dost thou think, man, I am afraid of it ?" he asked 



388 Voyages of Adventure and Discovery 

of the executioner; "a sharp medicine, but a sound 
cure for all diseases." 

In St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, is the beau- 
tiful Raleigh Window, the gift of Americans, with this 
inscription from the pen of James Russell Lowell: 

"The New World's sons, from England's breasts we drew 
Such milk as bids remember whence we came ; 
Proud of her Past, wherefrom our Present grew, 
This Window we inscribe with Raleigh's name." 

Hakluyt's monument is the Hakluyt Society, worthy 
among historical institutions, in the membership of 
which Americans are united with Englishmen, founded 
in England in the first half of the nineteenth century, 
in a manner to continue Hakluyt's work through the 
printing of hitherto unpublished or rare accounts of 
voyages and travels, so to open an easier way to a branch 
of knowledge which, as the founders truly say, "yields 
to none in importance and is superior to most in agree- 
able variety." 

The End 



INDEX 



Adams, Clement, 77, 78; narrative 
of Richard Chancellor's adven- 
tures by, 109, 114, 117. 

/Elfrid, King, 37. 

African coast, 144, 197, 198, 200, 
201, 202, 210, 211, 228, 256, 

African slave trade, 197, 198, 200, 
201, 202, 203, 204, 210, 212. 

"Aid," ship, 141; "Ayde," ship, in 
Frobisher's voyages, 157, 158, 159, 
166, 167, 169, 170, 174, 175, 177, 
178, 179, 183, 185, 186. 

Albemarle Sound, 10, 320. 

Amadas, Philip, and Arthur Barlow, 
Capts., first expedition of, to North 
America for Raleigh, 31 1-3 21; 
322; Amadas admiral in Raleigh's 
First Colony, 322; 323, 329, 330, 

353. 376. 

"Amazons," of Guiana, 383. 

American colonization, 5, 6, 8, 10, 
11; Gilbert's projects for, 5, 23, 24, 
285, 307; Raleigh's projects for, 6, 
8-9, 11, 12, 24, 25, 308, 311; 
Huguenot colony, 11, 12, 206-209, 
252; Frobisher's scheme of, 177; 
footprints of, 308-321; Raleigh's 
colonies, 322-380; 381; in South 
America, 384, 386. 

"Angel," ship, in Hawkins's third 
westward voyage, 210. 

" Anne," ship, of fleet for Russia, 1 29. 

"Anne Francis," ship, in Frobisher's 
third Northwestern voyage, 178, 
181, 183, 184, 185, 187, 188, 189, 
191, 192, 193. 

Antonio, Dom, Portuguese pre- 
tender, 26, 284. 

Archangel, 114, 130. 

Arthur, King, 13, 36. 

Ashehurst, Thomas, merchant ad- 
venturer, 92. 

Atlantic ocean, 263. 



Ayala, Don Pedro de, 73. 
Azores, 306, 382. 

B 

"Baccaloas," 75, 85, 87. 

Baffin Land, 155. 

Balboa, Vasco Nunez, 241. 

Bahama Islands, 328. 

"Bark Raleigh," of Gilbert's fleet 
for America, 288, 290. 

Barlow, Arthur. See Amadas and 
Barlow. 

Barret, Capt., master of the "Jesus 
of Lubec," 218, 224. 

Basaniere, Martin, 11. 

Bay of St. Nicholas, 114. 

"Bay of Severing Friends," 263. 

Beare, James, navigator, 158, 169. 

"Beare," ship, in Frobisher's third 
Northwestern voyage, 178. 

Bear's Sound, 169, 187, 193. 

"Benedict," ship, of Drake's fleet for 
the voyage round the world, 275. 

Best, George, historian and voyager, 
144; narratives of Frobisher's voy- 
ages by, 149, 150, 151, 154, 155, 
156, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162-165, 
166, 167-168; lieutenant in Fro- 
bisher's second voyage, 158, 168, 
170; description of natives of 
"Meta Incognita" by, 173; 176, 
178, 179, 180, 181; heroic exploits 
of, 188-191; 193. 

"Best's Blessing," 189, 191. 

"Best's Bulwark," 170. 

Biddle, Richard, biographer, 71, 88. 

Bodleian Library, 283. 

Bokhara, 130, 133, 134. 

"Bona Confidential' ship, in the 
Willoughby-Chancellor voyage, 
105, 106, in, 112, 113, 126; wreck 
of, 127; 137. 



389 



39° 



Index 



"Bona Esperanza," ship, in the 
Willoughby-Chancellor voyage, 
105, 106, 108, in, 112, 113, 126; 
wreck of, 127; 137. 

"Bonner," ship, of Drake's fleet in 
"Virginia," 348. 

Borough, Stephen, 106, 135, 136; 
voyages of, to Russia, 136-138, 
138-139; Burrough's Straits named 
for, 137; in Spain, 138. Wil- 
liam, 109, 135. 

Bowdoin College, 7. 

Brazil, 90, 94, 198, 199, 258. 

Bristol, Eng., 39, 61, 62; the Cabot's 
voyages from, 65, 66, 72; Bristol 
men in American adventures, 66, 
72, 91-92; 103; Bristol Castle, 175, 
177. 

British Museum, 7. 

Brown, Capt., of the "Delight" of 
Gilbert's fleet, 301. 

Buenos Ayres, 102. 

"Burcher's Island," 152. 

"Buss Island," 194. 

Butrigarius, Galeacius, 79. 

Buts, Thomas, mariner, 101. 



Cabot, John, 3, 4; first letters patent 
to, 61, 62-65; biographical notice 
of, 65-66; voyages of, 65-68; 69, 
70; second patent to, 71-72; sails 
on his last voyage, 72-73; 74, 78, 
80, 82, 87, 91, 92, 136. Lewis, 4, 
61, 62-65, 66, 136. Santius, 4, 
61, 62-65, 66, 136. Sebastian, 3, 
4, 61; in the first Cabot voyage, 
62-65; 66, 67, 71; in the second, 
74-76; map credited to, 77, 78; 
"discourse" of, 79-82; pilot- 
major of Spain, 80, 84, 95; 90, 91, 
92; again in England, 93; discov- 
eries of, in South America, 102; 
grand pilot of England, 102; 105, 
106; instructions of, for the Wil- 
loughby-Chancellor voyage, 107- 
108; in, 115; governor of the 
Muscovy Company, 124; 135; last 
public appearance of, 136; death 
of, 136. 



Cabot voyages, the, 3, 9, 22, 62-76; 
77, 84; ventures of other navigators 
in the track of, 90-95; 102. 

Cabral, Pedro Alvarez, Portuguese 
commander, 91. 

"Cacafuego," ship, the "glory of the 
South Sea," 268; captured by 
Drake, 269. 

Cadiz, 384. 

California, 23, 226, 254; Drake's 
discovery of, for the English, and 
named "New Albion," 274; earlier 
discoverers of, 274; Drake's land- 
fall, 274; Drake's reception by the 
natives, 275-278; possession of, 
taken for England, 278; 279. 

Camden, William, historian, 227, 
228, 252. 

Canary Islands, 200, 210. 

Cape Breton, John Cabot's landfall, 
6 7; 93> 97. 98, 225, 297. 

Cape Farewell, 150. 

Cape Fear, 312, 328, 353, 357. 

Cape Ferrelo, 275. 

Cape Hatteras, 312, 362, 379. 

Cape Horn, 263. 

Cape of Florida, 289. 

Cape of Good Hope, 282. 

Cape Lookout, 379. 

Cape Resolution. See "Queen 

Elizabeth's Foreland." 

Cape Verde, 202, 210. Cape Verde 
Islands, 256, 257, 258, 271. 

Carate, Don Francisco de, 270, 271. 

Carew, Capt., navigator, 178. 

Carolina coast, 349, 357, 371, 378. 

Caroni River, 383. 

Carpini, John de Piano, and William 
of Rubruquis, Franciscan friars, 
adventures of, 53-54. 

Cartagena, 212, 213, 238, 239, 251, 

345- 

Cartier, Jaques, explorer, 82. 

Caspian Sea, 133, 139, 140. 

" Cathay," the mysterious empire of, 
53, 54; Marco Polo's story of, 55; 
the aim of Columbus, 56, 60; of 
the Cabots, 68, 74, 76, 81, 83; of 
Willoughby and of Chancellor, 
103, 107, 125; of Anthony Jenkin- 
son, 133, 134; of Gilbert, 143, 145, 
147, 149; of Frobisher, 155, 157, 



Index 



39 1 



158, 176, 183, 192; Drake's thought 
of a passage to, 273. 

"Cativaas" (Catives) Island, 232, 
247- 

Cavendish, Capt. Thomas, navigator, 
3 2 3, 324, 329- [229. 

Cecil, Sir Robert, 13. Sir William, 

Celebes, 282. 

Chagres River, 242, 246. 

Chancellor, Richard, explorer, 103; 
characterization of, 106; 109, in, 
113; voyages of, to "Muscovia," 
114-115, 125-126; reception of, at 
the Russian court, 1 17-120; his 
description of the Russians, 120- 
122, 123, 124; loss of, in the wreck 
of his ship, 127; 129, 135, 137. 

"Chaonisti," Indian tribe, 339, 344. 

Charles VIII, of France, 59. 

Chesapeake Bay, 332, 333; Raleigh's 
Second Colony intended for, 351, 
353! 357! arrival of the "First 
Colony of Virginia" in, 386. 

"Chespians," Indian tribe, 332, 342, 

345- 

Chester, Capt. John, with Drake, 254. 

China, 55, 145, 158. 

Chowan River, 332, 333. 

"Christopher," ship, of Drake's fleet 
for the voyage round the world, 
254, 257, 259, 260. 

"Cimaroons," Indian tribe, 232, 235, 
239; with Drake on the Isthmus of 
Panama, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 
245-246, 247-249, 251; 252. 

Clark, Richard, master of the wreck- 
ed "Delight," 301. 

Colonies in "Virginia." See "Vir- 
ginia." 

Columbus, Bartholomew, 57, 58, 59, 
60. Christopher, discoveries of, 
offered to England, 56-60; 60, 61, 
65, 68, 73, 80, 90. Fernando 
Colon, 56, 59. 

"Company of Cathay," The, 157, 

194, i?5- 
Conception Bay, 291. 
Constantine, "the Great," 38. 
Contractation House, 21, 138. 
Cooke, Capt., with White in the 

quest for the Lost Colony, 372, 

373, 374, 376, 378. 



Cooper, Christopher, 365. 
Copper, in "Virginia," 334, 335. 
Cornwall, Eng., 175, 209, 223, 367, 

369- 
Cortereal, Gaspar de, and Michael 

de, navigators, 91. 
"Countess of Sussex Island," 191; 

"Countess of Sussex Mine," 187. 
"Countess of Warwick's Island," 

170, 173, 184, 185, 186, 189, 190, 

191, 192; identified as Kod-lu- 

narn, 195. 
Cox, Capt., with Gilbert, 298, 299. 
Craney Island, 332, 333. 
Croatoan, 329, 330, 331, 344, 345, 

346, 347, 3 6 °, 3 6l > 362, 363, 37i; 
supposed place to which the Lost 
Colony removed from Roanoke, 

376, 377, 378, 379- 
Crusades, The, English adventurers 

in, 41-50. 
Cuba, 85, 204, 213. 



D 



"Daniel the Saxon," mineral man 
with Gilbert, 295, 300, 304, 305. 

Dare, Ananias, 352, 364. Eleanor, 
363, 366. Virginia, first English 
child born in North America, 323, 
35 2 > 3 6 4, 366. 

"Dasamonguepeuk," 342, 343, 345, 
360, 362, 375, 377. 

Davidson, Prof. George, 274, 275. 

"Delight," ship, of Gilbert's fleet, 
288, 290, 297; wreck of, 298, 299- 

3°°, 3 OI > 3°4- . 
"Dennis," ship, in Frobisher's third 

Northwestern voyage, 178, 181, 

186, 187. 
Discourse on Western Planting, A, 

6-10, n, 24. 
Divers Voyages, 1, 2-5, 6, 10, 12, 13, 

23, .i3 8 , I39-. 
"Dorithie," ship, of Raleigh's second 

Virginia fleet, 323. 
Doughty, Thomas, with Drake, 258, 

260; trial and execution of, at Port 

St. Julien, 260-261. 
"Dragon," ship, in Drake's voyages 

to the Spanish Main, 229. 
Drake, Edmund, 227. Sir Francis, 



392 



Index 



9, 22, 23, 209; with Hawkins at 
San Juan d'Ulloa, 210, 221, 226; 
biographical notice of, 227-229; 
expeditions of, to the Spanish 
Main, 229-240; raid of, upon 
Nombre de Dios, 233-238; his 
first sight of the Pacific, 240; 241; 
attacks upon treasure trains from 
Panama, 242-246, 247-249; 250, 
251, 252; on the Pacific coast, 253- 
283; discovery of California for 
the English, 274-279; across the 
Pacific, 279-282; reception upon 
his return from his marvellous 
voyage, 283; after exploits of, 284; 
"singeing the King of Spain's 
beard," 284; 310, 313; in "Vir- 
ginia," 347, 348, 349; 369. John, 
230, 235, 236, 239. Joseph, 230, 
239. Robert, 227, 228. Thomas, 
258, 268. 

Drake's Harbor, 275. 

Durfoorth, Cornelius, mariner, 106. 

Dwina River, 130. 



E 



Eadgar, "the Peaceful," 39. 

Earl of Cumberland, 237. 

Earl of Essex, 253, 384. 

Earl of Leicester, 195, 202. 

Earl of Pembroke, 202. 

Earl of Warwick, 147, 157, 161, 165; 
Countess of Warwick, 157, 158, 
170, 174. 

Early English voyages, 36-52. 

East Indian Archipelago, 272. 

Ecgfrith, King, 37. 

Eden, Richard, historian, 22, 79. 

Edward III, 50. 

Edward VI, 101, 102, 107, 108, 109, 
115, 117, 118. 

" Edward Bonaventure," ship, in the 
Willoughby-Chancellor voyage, 
105, 106, 109, in, 112; in Chan- 
cellor's voyages to Russia, 113, 
114, 125, 126; wreck of, 127; 135. 

Edwin, King, 36. 

"El Dorado," the "city of gold," 
382, 383- 

Eliot, Hugh, merchant adventurer, 
92. 



Elizabeth, Queen, 6, 9, 10; names 
"Virginia," n, 322; 13, 17, 22, 

23> 2 9, J 39> !40, 141, 143, 144, 
145; farewell demonstrations to 
departing fleets for discovery, 148, 
179; 156, 157, 167, 168; Frobish- 
er's interview with, 176; 177, 180, 
204, 245, 252, 261, 262; Drake 
takes possession of California for, 
278, 280, 283; letters patent to 
Gilbert, 285, 288; 290, 291; New- 
foundland taken possession for, 
292-293; patent to Raleigh, 308- 
309; 310, 311; "Virginia" taken 
possession for, 312; 322, 340, 341, 
368, 381, 385. 

"Elizabeth," ship, of Drake's fleet 
for the voyage round the world, 
254, 263. Of Raleigh's fleet with 
his First Colony, 323. 

Elizabeth River, 332. 

Elizabethan period, 18, 144, 381. 

" Elizabethides," 263. 

Ellis, Thomas, 179. 

Emmanuel, King of Portugal, 91. 

"Emmanuel (or Buss) of Bridge- 
water," ship, in Frobisher's third 
Northwestern voyage, 178, 184, 

i93» 194- 
"Emmanuel of Exeter," ship, in 

Frobisher's third Northwestern 

voyage, 178. 
England's claim to North America, 

3-4, 9, 22, 77-89, 90. 
"Ensinore," Indian king, 333, 334, 

339, 340, 34i- 
Eskimo, The, first description of, 

153; 163-165; 171, 187. 
" Ewaipanoma," Indian tribe, 383. 



Fabian, Robert, Chronicle of, 4, 

77, 87-88. 
"Falcon," ship, 310. 
Farallones, islands, 279; called by 

Drake " Islands of St. James," 280. 
Fayal, 384. 
" Fellowship of English Merchants," 

141, 144, 145- 
Fenton, Capt. Edward, 158, 168, 
178, 181, 186, 187, 195. 



Index 



393 



Ferdinand and Isabella, 60, 73, 93. 

Ferdinando, Simon, with Raleigh's 
Second Colony, 353, 354, 355, 356, 
357. 358, 359. 3.66, 367, 386. 

Fernandus, Francis, and John, mari- 
ners, 92. 

Finland, 137. 

Fisher Island, 137, 138. 

Fletcher, Francis, Drake's chaplain, 
261, 262, 266, 273. 

Florida, 5, 9, 12, 15, 26, 27, 81, 83 
Huguenot colony in, 11, 206-208 
Hawkins in, 197, 202, 204-208 
209, 213, 252, 289, 312, 328, 355. 

Fly-boat, of the fleet with Raleigh's 
Second Colony, 354, 359. 3 6 5> 3 6 7- 

"Fort Diego," 239, 251. 

Francastor, Hieronymo, 79. 

France in America, 1, 4, 5, 11, 12, 
82, 83, 197. 

"Francis," ship, 348, 349. 

"Francis of Foy," ship, in Frobish- 
er's third Northwestern voyage, 
178, 181, 184. 

French Huguenot colony in Florida, 
11, 12, 206-207; relieved by Haw- 
kins, 208; menaced by Pedro Me- 
nendez de Aviles, 208; Menendez's 
act avenged, 209, 252; 323. 

"Friesland," 150, 160. 

Frobisher, Sir Martin, 143; bio- 
graphical notice of, 144-145; first 
Northwestern voyage of, 147-155; 
second, 158-175; third, 177-194; 
later exploits of, 195-196; 197, 
273, 284, 285, 369, 382. 

Frobisher's Bay, 152. 

"Frobisher's Straits," 152, 155, 180, 
182, 184. 

Froude, James Anthony, 32. 



G 



"Gabriel," ship, in Frobisher's 
Northwestern voyages, 147, 148, 

15°. J 57. i5 8 > 174, 175. 177. i7 8 i 

181, 193. 
Galvano, Antonio, historian, 14. 
Gama, Vasco da, navigator, 90, 91. 
Gannet, Capt. John, navigator, 231. 
Gascoigne, George, poet, 144, 145. 



Gates, Sir Thomas, of South Vir- 
ginia Company, 385. 

Gefferson, William, shipmaster, 106. 

Genghis Khan, 53. 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 5, 6; letters 
patent to, 23, 285, 286; 141; bio- 
graphical notice of, 143-144; revival 
of the Northwest theory by, 143- 
147; voyages of, 285-307; at New- 
foundland, 292-297; attempt of, 
to reach the mainland, 297-302; 
loss of, on the homeward voy- 
age, 306-307; 308,309,310. Otho, 
310. 

Goes, Benedict, at "Cathay," 55. 

Gold, supposed discovery of, in "Me- 
ta Incognita," 155, 156; Frobisher's 
speculative enterprises, 157, 177; 
prospecting for, 161, 162, 166, 167, 
168, 169, 170; 175, 176. In Cali- 
fornia, 279. "El Dorado," 382, 

383, 387- . 
"Golden Hind," originally "Peli- 
can," ship, in Drake's voyage 
round the world, 262, 263, 264- 
272, 274-279, 282; long preserved 
as a monument to England's 
glory, 283. "Golden Hind," the, 
of Gilbert's fleet, 288, 289, 290, 
297, 298, 299, 302, 303, 304, 305, 

3 o6 > 3°7- 

Gomara, Francisco Lopez de, his- 
torian, 77, 86, 87. 

Gorges, Sir Fernandino, 7. 

"Governour and Assistants of the 
Citie of Ralegh in Virginia," The, 
35 2 . 386. 

" Granganimeo," Indian chief, 314; 
welcome of, to the first English in 
"Virginia," 315-316; 317; home 
of, 318; wife of, and her hospital- 
ity, 3 l8 -3 2 °; 33°, 333, 334- 

Greenland, 4, 147, 150, 160, 161; 
West Friesland, 180; taken pos- 
session of, and called West Eng- 
land, 180; 194. 

Greenwich, court at, 148, 179. 

Grenville, Sir Richard, 288; general 
of Raleigh's fleet with his First 
Colony for "Virginia," 323-328; 
return voyage of, 329; capture of 
Spanish prizes along the way, 330- 



394 



Index 



331, 349; later return of, to "Vir- 
ginia" with a relief fleet, 350; 
353, 357, 358, 368, 369, 382. 

Griego, John, pilot, 266. 

Guiana, 382; Raleigh's story of, 383; 

384, 387- . 
Gulf of Darien, 230, 231. 
Gulf of Mexico, 210, 213; experiences 

of Hawkins's men landed thereon, 

222, 224-225; 334. 
Gulf of St. Lawrence, 68. 
Gundlur, John, mariner, 92. 



H 



Hakluyt, Edmund, 30. Richard, 
publications of, 2-16; biography 
of, 17-31; influence of, in obtain- 
ing patents for American coloniza- 
tion, 385; patentee in the South 
Virginia Company, 385, 388. 
Richard, of the Middle Temple, 
19, 300, 370, 379. Thomas, 19. 

Hakluyt family, The, 18, 19. 

Hakluyt Society, 388. 

Hall, Capt. Charles Francis, ex- 
plorer, 195. 

Hall, Capt. Christopher, navigator, 
148; his narrative of Frobisher's 
first Northwestern voyage, 148, 

149, i5°> rS 1 . x 5 2 , J 55; in Fro- 
bisher's second voyage, 158, 161; 
chief pilot in Frobisher's third 
voyage, 178, 181. 

"Hall's Island." See "North Fore- 
land." 

Hallam, Henry, 34. 

Hariot, Thomas, historian, in Ra- 
leigh's first colony, 322, 329, 334, 
343; his description of "Virginia," 

35°, 3Si- 
Hartop, Job, David Ingram, Miles 

Philips, of Hawkins's men, tales 

by, of marvellous adventures, 224, 

225. 
Harvie, Dyonis, 364. 
Hastorask, 330, 344, 357, 361, 371. 
Hatteras Indians, 380. 
Hatton, Sir Christopher, 253, 262. 
Hatton's Headland, 189. 
Hawkes, Francis L., 380. 



Hawkins, Sir John, 9, 196, 197; 
biographical notice of, 198, 200, 
201; in Florida, 204-208; third 
voyage of, westward, 209, 210; his 
own narrative of the latter adven- 
ture, 210-224; fight with a Spanish 
fleet at San Juan d'Ulloa, 219-221; 
after exploits of, 226; 228, 231, 
284, 328, 369. Hawkyns, John, 
198. William, 198, 199, 260, 228. 

Hayes, Capt. Edward, with Gilbert, 
289, 290. • 

Headly, Edward, soldier-sailor, 301. 

Helena, Flavia Augusta, Empress, 

Henry, Prince, "The Navigator," 
21, 51-52. 

Henry IV, 50. 

Henry VII, 3, 22; discoveries of Co- 
lumbus offered to, 56-60; first 
letters patent of, granted to the 
Cabots, 61, 62-65; 67, 68, 69; 
second patent of, granted to John 
Cabot, 70-72; 76, 79, 80, 83, 86, 
87, 88; patent of, to Bristol men, 
1501, 92; 93, 136. 

Henry VIII, 4, 57, 93, 96, 198, 199. 

"Hispaniola" (San Domingo), 94, 
95, 200, 201, 207, 238, 323; enter- 
tainment at, of Raleigh's First 
Colony on the outward voyage, 
327-328; 347, 356, 357. 

Holy Land, early pilgrimages to, 38* 

"Hopewell," ship, in Frobisher's 
third Northwestern voyage, 178. 

Hore's, Master, expedition of 1533, 
97-101. 

Howard, Admiral Charles, 13, 27, 
157, 158, 196* 3 6 9> 384- Lord 
Thomas, 382. 

Howe, George, an assistant in Ra- 
leigh's Second Colony, slain by 
Indians, 359, 362, 363. 

Hudson's Strait, 74, 91, 151, 182, 183. 



Iceland, 36, 87. 

India, 37, 52, 80, 83; Portuguese in, 
90, 91; 96, 103, 134, 159. See 
Northwest Passage and Northeast 
Passage. 



Ind 



ex 



395 



Indian Ocean, 90. 

Indian villages in "Virginia," 318, 
320, 329, 332, 335, 336, 360. 

Indians, North American, S8, 146, 
152, 153, 154, 155, 163; of Florida, 
204, 205, 206, 207, 208; of "Vir- 
ginia," 314-321, 329, 359, 360, 
361, 362-364, 380; John White's 
drawings of, 323. South Amer- 
ican, 102; a Brazilian king in Lon- 
don, 199; the "Cimaroons," 232; 
382, 383- 

Ingulphus, eleventh century crusader, 
narrative of, 41-45. 

Ireland, 36, 37, 143, 144, i95> 2 54, 
310, 322. 

"Island Caycos," 357. 

"Islands of St. James." See Faral- 
lones. 

"Islands of Thieves." See Pellew 
Islands. 

Isle of Bartimentos, 237. 

Isles of Pines, 231, 233, 235, 237, 
238. 

Isthmus of Darien, 230, 328. 

Isthmus of Panama, 234, 235, 239; 
treasure teams of, 235, 241; 
Drake's attacks upon, 242-246, 
247-249; 251, 254, 268, 269. 

Ivan IV, of Russia, 114, 115, 116; 
reception of Chancellor by, 117— 
120; 125; gifts of, to the English 
sovereign, 126; 127, 129, 134, 141, 
142. 



Jackman's Sound, 167, 169, 170, 
171. 

Jamaica, 61, 204, 207. 

James I, n, 25, 381, 382; charter 
granted by, 385; 386, 387. 

Jamestown, 1, 25, 31, 311, 333; 
planted, 386. 

Java, 282. 

Jenkinson, Anthony, traveller, ad- 
ventures of, 130-135; his descrip- 
tion of the manners and customs 
of the "Russes," 131-132; 138; 
ambassador to Persia, 139; second 
Transcaspian expedition of, 139- 
140; associated with Gilbert, 141; 



last voyage of, 141-142; concerned 
in new ventures westward, 142; 
143, 146, i_57- . 

"Jesus," ship, in Borough's ser- 
vice, 138. "Jesus of Lubec," in 
Hawkins's westward voyages, 202, 
210, 213, 219, 220, 221, 225. 

"John Evangelist," ship, of fleet for 
Russia, 129. "John Evangelist," of 
White's last fleet in quest of the 
Lost Colony, 371. 

Johnson, Richard and Robert, trav- 
ellers in the East, 133. 

Jones, John Winter, 5. 

"Judith," ship, in Frobisher's third 
Northwestern voyage, 178, 181, 
185, 192, 193. "Judith," in Haw- 
kins's third western voyage, 210, 
221, 228. 



Kara Sea, 137. 

Kendrick's Mount, 372, 378. 

Keymis, Capt. Lawrence, on the 
Orinoco, 383, 387. 

Khan, the Great, 54, 68. 

Kholmogro, 130, 135, 137. 

Kidder, Frederick, 68. 

Kod-lu-narn. See Countess of War- 
wick's Island. 



Labrador, 68, 91, 92, 93, 150, 151. 

Lane, Ralph, governor of Raleigh's 
First Colony, 322, 325, 329, 330; 
narrative of, 331-350; explorations 
of, in "Virginia," 33^33^, 334~ 
339; crushing an Indian con- 
spiracy, 344-346; 347, 348; return 
with the colony to England, 349- 
35°; 352, 368, 386. 

Lapland, haven in, where Sir Hugh 
Willoughby and his companions 
perished, in, 112, 113, 126. 

Laudonniere, Rene de, in Florida, 
n, 12, 206, 207, 208. 

"Leicester's Island," 169. 

Le Moyne, James, artist in the French 
Huguenot colony in Florida, draw- 
ings of, 208, 323. 



39 6 



Index 



Levant, the, 144. 

Ley, Dr., English ambassador in 
Spain, 92, 96. 

Lima, 241, 242, 266, 267. 

Linna, Nicholas de, voyage of, to 
the "North parts" in 1360, 50. 

"Lion," ship, of the fleet with Ra- 
leigh's First Colony, 323; with his 
Second Colony, 354, 356; return 
voyage to England, 364, 367, 368. 

Lisbon, 284. 

"Little John," ship, of White's last 
fleet in quest of the Lost Colony, 

37i- 

Lock, Sir John and Thomas, mer- 
chant adventurers, 144. 

Lofoden Islands, no. 

Lok, Michael, 157. 

London, in the twelfth century, 39. 

London, or South Virginia Com- 
pany, 25, 385, 386. 

"Lord of Roanoke." See "Man- 
teo." 

Lovell, Capt. John, 228. 

Lowell, James Russell, his inscrip- 
tion on the Raleigh Window, 388. 

Lumley, Lord, Library of, 27, 34. 

"Lyon," ship. See Lion. 

M 

Mace, Capt. Samuel, of Raleigh's 
fifth expedition to "Virginia," 384. 

Macham, Robert, story of the dis- 
covery of Madeira by, 50-51. 

Madeira, 50-51, 52. 

Madoc, Welshman, legend of the dis- 
covery of the West Indies by, 18, 
39-41, 89. 

Magalhaes, Fernao de, discoverer, 
102, 260, 262. 

Maine Historical Society, 8, 68. 

Major, Richard Henry, geographer, 

5°- 
Malgo, 36. 
"Mangoaks," Indian tribe, 334, 335, 

336, 337, 339, 34i, 343- 
"Manteo," Indian of "Virginia," 
321; made "Lord of Roanoke," 
321, 3 6 4; 323, 329, 33°, 334, 337, 
339, 360, 362, 363, 377. 



"Marigold," ship, of Drake's fleet 
for the voyage round the world, 
254, 263; foundered, 264. 

Martyr, Peter, historian, 12, 14, 77, 
84. 

Mary, Queen, 124, 126, 129, 138. 

"Mary," ship, Portuguese prize 
added to Drake's fleet, 257, 260. 

" Matthew," the, John Cabot's ship, 
66. 

"Menatonon," ndian king, 332, 

333, 335, 336, 33?,, 34°, 34i, 344- 
Menendez, de Aviles, Pedro, 208, 

252. 

Mercator's Projection, 34. 

"Merchant Adventurers of Eng- 
land," 104, in; chartered, 124; 

128, 130. 

"Meta Incognita," 97, 155, 177, 180, 
181. 

Mexico, 214, 215, 217, 224, 225, 230, 
269, 270, 271, 272, 274. 

"Michael," ship, in Frobisher's 
Northwestern voyages, 147, 150, 
15*1 z 57, !5 8 , 161, 170, 171, 174, 
175, 178, 181, 185, 193. 

Milford Haven, 175. 

"Minion," ship, in Hawkins's third 
westward voyage, 210, 218, 219, 
220, 221, 222, 223, 231. 

Mr. Rowley's Voyage. See Dis- 
course on Western Planting, A. 

Mollineux, Emmerie, map of, 34. 

Moon, Capt. Thomas, 254. 

"Moone," ship, in Frobisher's third 
Northwestern voyage, 178, 181, 
185, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191. 

"Moratoc," or Roanoke River, 332, 

334, 335- 

"Moratocs," Indian tribe, 335, 336. 

Morgan, Miles, 287. 

Moscow, 116, 117, 121, 123, 125, 

130, 131, 132, 133, 135, 139. 
Moskva River, 133. 
Mosquito Bay, 355. 
"Mount Warwicke," 162-163, 182. 
Muscovy. See Russia. 
"Muscovy Company," The, 124, 127, 

129, 130, 133, 135, 138, 139, 141, 

157- 
"My Lord Admiral's Island." See 
Croatoan. 



Ind 



ex 



397 



N 



O 



Napea, Osep, first ambassador from 
Russia to England, 125, 126, 127; 
reception of, 127-129; return voy- 
age of, 129-130; 137. 

Navigation, early schools of, 21. 

Netherlands, 9, 144. 

"New Albion." See California. 

New Brunswick, 68. 

New France, 82, 83. 

New Spain. See Mexico. 

Newfoundland, 4, 5, 27,- 67, 68, 75; 
Portugal's claim to, 91; English 
discovery of, 92; 93, 97, 209, 288; 
Gilbert's colonizing voyage to, 
289-307; taken possession of for 
England, 292-293; 301, 305. 

Newfoundland fishing fleets, 93, 291. 

Nombre de Dios, 230, 231, 232; 
Drake's raid upon, 233-238; 239, 
241; Drake's attacks upon treas- 
ure teams to, 242-246; 247-249; 
254; death of Drake near, 284. 

Norfolk, Virginia, 332. 

Norris, Sir John, 196, 310. 

North America, England's claim to, 
3, 9; founders of English colonies 
in, 31; Portugal's claim to, 91; 
supposed continent of, 152, 161, 
167; 197; Drake on the western 
coast of, 254, 262-283; Gilbert's 
attempt to reach the eastern 
coast, 297-302; 305; Raleigh's at- 
tempts at colonization in, 322-380; 

38S- 

North Carolina, 75. 

Northeast Passage, The, 90, 96-103, 
125, 126, 133, 135, 141, 143. 

Northwest Passage, The, 3, 19, 53- 
61; early quests for, by the Cabots, 
62-76, 79, 81, 93; 102, 142; re- 
vival of the theory by Gilbert, 143, 
144, 145-147; Frobisher's voyages 
for the discovery of, 147-194; 195, 

273- 
"North Foreland," or Hall's Island, 

161, 162, 182 
North Seas, 36, 37, no. 
Norway, 126, 135. 
Nova Zembla, 137. 
Nova Scotia, 67, 91. 



Obi River, 137. 

"Ocracoke" (Oregon Inlet), North 

Carolina, 312. 
Octher, northward voyage of, in the 

ninth century, 37. 
Ojeda, Alonzo de, navigator, 90. 
" Okisko," Indian king, 340, 341, 

343- 

Oregon, Drake on the coast of, 273, 
274; Drake's "bad harbour," 275. 

Orinoco River, 382; Raleigh's ex- 
ploration of, 383, 387; scheme for 
colonization on, 384. 

Ortelius, Abraham, geographer, 35. 

Oviedo, Gonzalo de, historian, 94, 95. 

Oxenham, Capt. John, navigator, 
236, 241, 243, 328. 

Oxford, 19, 20, 22, 23, 42, 143, 283, 
310. 



Pacific Ocean, 23, 102, 147, 183; 
Drake's first sight of, 240; 241; 
his voyage up the coast, 253-282; 
harassing Spanish possessions on, 
254; at Oregon and California, 
274-279; across the ocean, 279- 
282, 313, 334, 335- 

Pamlico Sound, 10, 329, 331. 

Papal bulls, 52, 60, 76. 

Paraguay River, 102. 

Parana River, 102. 

Parmenius, Stephanus, poet and his- 
torian, 300. 

"Pasha," ship, in Drake's voyages 
to the Spanish Main, 229, 230, 
239, 247, 251. 

Pasqualigo, Lorenzo, 68. 

Patagonia, 254, 260, 264. 

Patents for English adventures, 61, 
62-65, 70-72, 92, 93. _ 

"Paul of Plymouth," ship, 198. 

Peckham, Sir George, associated 
with Gilbert's projects, 288. 

"Pelican," ship, of Drake's fleet for 
the voyage round the world, 254, 
255, 258; name changed to the 
" Golden Hind," 262. See " Gold- 
en Hind." 



39« 



Index 



Pellew Islands, called by Drake 

Islands of Thieves, 280. 
"Pemisapan," Indian king. See 

" Wingina." 
"Penguin, Island of," adventures on, 

98-99. 
Persia, 134, 139, 140; Shah of, 140; 

141. 
Pert, Sir Thomas, expedition of, 94. 
Peru, 230, 241, 242, 265, 266, 267; 

mines of, 382. 
Philippine Islands, 102, 272, 280. 
Philip II of Spain, 6, 10, 124, 126, 

129, 138,356, 368; Philip III, 387. 
Philip and Mary. See Mary. 
"Philip and Mary," ship, in Chan- 
cellor's second voyage to Russia, 

125, 126, 127, 138; in Stephen 

Borough's third voyage to Russia, 

138. 
Phillips, Sir Thomas, 7. 
Philpot, Richard, in Frobisher's 

second northwestern voyage, 171, 

178. 
Pinnace, of the fleet with Raleigh's 

Second Colony, 354, 355, 357. 
Pinzon, Vincente Yarez, navigator, 

90. 
Plate River, 102, 237, 259, 264. 
Plymouth, America, 1. 
Plymouth, England, 11, 144, 196, 

202, 210, 228, 230, 231, 252, 255, 

287, 290, 308, 323, 330, 354, 370, 

37i- 

"Plymouth Company," The, 25, 

38S- 
"Pocahontas," 387. 
Point Reyes Head, Drake's landfall 

in California, 274. 
Polo, Maffei, 54; Nicolo, 54; Marco, 

54; Voyages and Travels of Marco, 

55- 

"Port Pheasant," 230. 

Porto Rico, 61, 94, 226, 323, 324. 

Portsmouth, England, 349, 353, 367. 

Portugal, 21; Papal bulls in favor of, 
52, 60; 87, 90; claim of, to the 
North American coast, 91; 284. 

Portuguese, navigations and dis- 
coveries of, 3, 4, 21, 51, 52; 53, 57, 
75, 80, 90, 91, 92, 104; on the 
California coast, 274. 



"Primrose," ship, 129. 

Prince Edward Island. See St. John, 

Island of. 
Principal Navigations, The, 12-14; 

25-28; contents of, 32-35. 
Public Library of Boston, 34. 
Purchas, Samuel, 14; his Hakluytus 

Posthumus, 14, 226. William, 88. 



'Queen Elizabeth's Foreland" 
(Cape Resolution), 151, 161, 180, 



iai, i* 



R 



Raleigh, Sir Carew, 310. Sir Wal- 
ter, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 17, 23, 31, 143, 
196, 197; letters patent granted to, 
24, 25, 308-309, 311, 351; asso- 
ciated with Gilbert's projects, 286- 
289; biographical notice of, 310- 
311; preliminary expedition of, 
sent to America, 31 1-3 12; Vir- 
ginia taken possession of, 312; 322; 
his First Colony, 322-350; Second 
Colony, 35 I ~35 2 ; 35 6 > 3 6 4, 368; 
service of, against the Spanish 
Armada, 369; 370, 379; repeated 
quests for his Lost Colony, 381, 
384; voyages of, to the Orinoco, 
382-384, 387; imprisoned in the 
Tower of London, 381, 382, 385, 
386, 387; beheaded, 387; 388. 
Walter, Jr., 387. Prof. Walter, 

34- 

Raleigh Window, The, 388. 

Ramusio, Giovanni Battista, his- 
torian, 4, 77, 82, 94. 

Resolution Island, 151. 

Ribault, Capt. John, in Florida, 5, 
11, 12, 208. 

Rio del Hacha, 203, 212, 228, 229. 

"Rio Francesco," 247, 249, 250. 

"River of May," 206. 

"River Occam," 320. 

Roanoke Island, 11, 312; first Eng- 
lishmen on, 318, 319; 320, 323; 
Raleigh's First Colony at, 329, 
330, 331-352; abandoned by that 
colony, 349; Grenville's later re- 



Index 



399 



turn to, with a relief fleet, 350; 
35 2 > 353; Second Colony at, 357, 
35 8 > 359, 360, 361, 362, 363, 366; 
White at, in quest of the Lost 
Colony, 371-373, ' 373-378; in- 
scription on the palisado at, 376, 
379; 380,386. 

Roanoke River. See "Moratoc." 

" Roe-bucke," ship, of the fleet with 
Raleigh's First Colony, 323. 

"Rosse Bay," 355. 

Rouse, Capt. James, navigator, 231, 
232, 237, 238. 

Russia, 103; opening of, by Chan- 
cellor's voyage of 1553, 104-124; 
voyages to, for the Muscovy Com- 
pany, 124-142; Jenkinson's ad- 
ventures in, 130-135; Borough's 
\oyages to, 136-139; 141, 142. 



St. Augustine, 347. 

"St. German's Bay," 356. 

St. John, Island of (Prince Edward 

Island), 67, 68, 78. 
"S. John de Porto Rico, Island of," 

3 2 4, 325> 326, 3 2 9» 33i, 355. 35 6 . 

378. 
St. John's, Newfoundland, 291, 292, 

2 9 6 > 297> 3°°> 3°5- 

St. John's River. See "River of 
May." 

St. Julien, port of, 260, 262. 

St. Lawrence River, 91, 287. 

St. Nicholas, 114, 126, 130, 137, 138, 
139, 142. 

San Francisco Bay, 274, 279. 

San Juan d'Ulloa, 213, 214; engage- 
ment of Hawkins with a Spanish 
fleetat, 215-224; 226, 228, 229, 328. 

Sanderson, William, merchant, 34. 

Santa Cruz, 354, 355. 

" Searchthrift," ship, of Borough's 
first fleet for Russia, 135, 137. 

Settle, Dionysus, his narrative of 
Frobisher's second Northwestern 
voyage, 158, 160, 161, 166, 167, 
168; description of the natives of 
"Meta Incognita," 171-173. 

Seville, 4, 21, 59, 79, 80, 84, 96, 138, 
201, 231, 238. 



Shakspere, William, 17, 30, 34. 

Sidney, Sir Henry, 106, 143. Sir 
Philip, 2, 3, 10, 17, 23, 106, 157. 

Sighelmus, Bishop of Sheburne, in 
India, in the ninth century, 37. 

Silva, Nuno da, pilot, 257, 271, 272. 

Silver, supposed discovery of, in New- 
foundland, 295, 296, 300; speci- 
mens lost, 300-301; 304, 305. 

" Skyko," Indian of "Virginia," 333, 

339. 343- . 
Smyth, William, navigator, 158, 174, 

175- 

"Solomon," ship, in Hawkins's west- 
ward voyages, 202. 

"Solomon of Weymouth," ship, in 
Frobisher's third Northwestern 
voyage, 178. 

Somers, Sir George, patentee South 
Virginia Company, 385. 

Soto, Hernando de, 15. 

South America, 3, 90; 94; Sebastian 
Cabot's discoveries in, 102; 197, 
198, 199, 203, 382, 383. 

South Carolina, 4. 

South Sea. See Pacific Ocean. 

Spain's possessions in America, 1, 3 
8, 9; on the Pacific coast, 23; 60 
90, 91, 197, 201, 207, 230; Drake'; 
raids on, 233-251; 253, 254, 284 
visits of Raleigh's colonists to, on 
the outward voyages, 324-328, 
354-356; 382, 384- 

Spaniards, navigations and discov- 
eries of, 3, 60, 80, 90, 104; on the 
California coast, 274, 279. 

Spanish Armada, the, 13, 226, 284, 
368, 369, 384. _ 

Spanish Inquisition, 224, 225. 

Spanish Main, 8, 197, 203; Drake's 
operations on, 228, 229-240; 254, 
284. 

Spenser, Edmund, 17. 

Spice Islands, 272, 280-282. 

Spicer, Edward, shipmaster, in 
"Virginia," 359, 360; with White 
in quest of the Lost Colony, 371, 
372, 373; lost, 374- 

"Squirrel," ship, of Gilbert's fleet, 
288, 290, 291, 297, 298, 299, 302, 
303, 304, 305, 306; foundering of, 
with Gilbert, 307. 



400 



Ind 



ex 



Stafford, Sir Edward, 24, 25, 27. 
Master Richard, chaplain of trie 
Willoughby-Chancellor voyage, 
106, 108. Capt. Edward, of 
Raleigh's colonies, 344, 346, 347, 

357. 3 6 °, 3 62 - 

Stevens, Henry, bibliophile, 7. 

Stow, John, annalist, 87. 

Strait of Magellan, 102, 147, 260, 
262; passage of, by Drake's fleet, 
262; 272, 313. 

Straits of Hercules, 85. 

"Swallow," ship, in Borough's third 
voyage for Russia, 138; 139. 
"Swallow," in Hawkins's west- 
ward voyages, 202, 210. "Swal- 
low," of Gilbert's fleet, 288, 290, 
291, 297, 300. 

"Swan," ship, in Drake's voyages, 
229, 230, 239, 254, 258, 259. 



Tetou, Capt., of a French ship, 
with Drake at Panama, 247, 249, 
251, 252. 

Thames River, 39. 

Thomas, John, merchant adven- 
turer, 92. 

"Thomas Allen," ship, in Frobish- 
er's third Northwestern voyage, 
178, 183, 184, 187. 

"Thomas of Ipswich," ship, in Fro- 
bisher's third Northwestern voy- 
age, 178, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189. 

Thomson, Sir Peter, 7. 

Thorne, Robert, merchant, 4, 92, 96, 
105. 

Tierra del Fuego, 263. 

"Tiger," ship, in Hawkins's west- 
ward voyages, 202. "Tiger," of 
Raleigh's fleet with his First Col- 
ony. 3 2 3> 3 2 4, 329. 33°- 

Tower Hill, 387. 

Tower of London, 177, 381, 382, 
385, 386, 387. 

"Treasure of the World," 236, 238, 
254- 

Treasure ships, 5, 8; capture of the 
"Madre de Dios," 382. 



"Trinitie," ship, of fleet for Russia, 

129. 
Trinity College, Cambridge, 19, 30. 



U 



Upcot, Capt., in Frobisher's third 
Northwestern voyage, 178, 190. 



Valentia, Lord, Library of, 7. 

Valparaiso, 265, 266. 

Vaz, Lopez, 237. 

Venezuela, 203. 

"Venta Cruz," 242, 243, 244, 245. 

Verazzano, John, discoverer, 4, 82. 

Vermejo River, 102. 

Vespucci, Amerigo, 90, 91. 

"Virginia," 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 25, 31; 
Capts. Amadas and Barlow's pre- 
liminary expedition to, 10, 311- 
321; their landfall, 312; their de- 
scription of, 313; extent of, 322, 
385; named by Queen Elizabeth, 
11, 322; Raleigh's First Colony in, 
322-350; his Second Colony, 351- 
357; fate of a band left by Gren- 
ville at Roanoke, 358, 360, 361, 
362; the Lost Colony, 369-379; 
381, 382, 384; "First Colony of 
Virginia," 385; "Second Colony 
of Virginia, 385; 386, 387. 

Virginia Richly Valued, 15. 

Volga River, 133, 135. 

W 

Walsingham, Sir Francis, 10, 13, 

23, 24. 
"Wanchese," Indian of "Virginia," 

321, 323, 334- 

Ward, Richard, merchant adven- 
turer, 91, 92. 

"Wardhouse," no, 112, 113, 114, 
125, 135, 137. 

"Warspite," battleship, 384. 

Watts, John, merchant adventurer, 

37°- 

"West England." See Greenland. 

West Indies, 8, 14; tradition of dis- 
covery by a Welshman, 18, 39-41; 
56, 59, 60, 61, 79, 80, 86, 89, 90, 



Index 



401 



93, 96; Hawkins in, 197, 200, 202, 
an, 213, 226; Drake in, 228, 230, 
238, 284; 286, 312, 370, 378. 

Westminster, 27, 30, 77, 88, 129. 

Westminster Abbey, 30, 388. 

Westminster School, 19, 42. 

White, John, artist of Raleigh's First 
Colony, 323, 329; drawings by, 
323, 350; governor of Raleigh's 
Second Colony, 323, 352; grand- 
father of Virginia Dare, 323, 352; 

353, 354, 355, 35°\ 357, 358, 364, 
365; return of, to England, 366, 
367; 368; quests for the Lost 
Colony, 369, 370, 371-379; 382, 
386. 

White Sea, 114, 125, 135, 137. 

"William and John," ship, in Haw- 
kins's third westward voyage, 210; 
231. 

Willoughby, Sir Hugh, 103; Captain- 
general for the Willoughby-Chan- 
cellor voyage, 105; characteriza- 
tion of, 106; journal of, 108, in; 
adventures of, as therein recorded, 
111-113; tragic fate of, 113; 124, 
125, 126. 

Willoughby-Chancellor voyage of 

i553, i°4-n3; 148. 
" Willoughbie's Land," 112. 



Wingfield, Edward Maria, patentee 
South Virginia Company, 386. 

"Wingina," Indian king, 315, 329, 
330; conspiracy of, to destroy 
Raleigh's First Colony, 333-346; 
name changed to "Pemisapan," 
334; 3 6 °, 362. 

Winter, Capt. John, navigator, 254, 
263, 313. 

Wocokon, Island of, 312, 313, 314, 

323, 328, 329, 33°, 371- 

Wolfall, Master, Frobisher's chap- 
lain, 186, 192. 

Woods, President Leonard, Bow- 
doin College, 7. 

Wright, Edward, 34. 



Yarmouth, England, 174. 

Yorke, Capt. Gilbert, with Fro- 
bisher, 158, 168, 170; "Yorke's 
Sound" named for, 171; 178, 183, 
187. 

Yorke's Sound, 171. 



Zeno, the brothers, navigators, 4; 
the Zeno chart, 148, 150, 160. 



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